The upcoming festive season could be dangerous and lead to a surge in COVID-19 cases if people are not cautious, doctors and experts from across India have warned. They said social gatherings could turn into super-spreader events if communities fail to follow protocols.
The cautionary note comes close on the heels of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General Dr. Balram Bhargava’s recent advice that vaccination is a disease-modifying, not disease-preventing, option. He advocated continued use of COVID-appropriate behaviour.
Nitin Nagarkar, Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Raipur, said that people needed to remember that earlier this year the cases had gone down only to shoot up in April, the month when the country saw a massive second wave.
“In February, the country was reporting around 8,000 cases, but as soon as individuals and communities became complacent, the cases surged alarmingly. People should remain cautious and follow COVID Appropriate Behaviour, at all times. People should keep wearing a mask and avoid crowding even while celebrating festivities,” he added.
Sarman Singh, Director, AIIMS, Bhopal, said that having to be careful did not mean that one cannot celebrate festivals. “Technology has empowered us to remain emotionally and socially connected through virtual mediums,” he said.
Experts pointed out that vaccination alone was not a preventive measure.
“Vaccine provides over 95% protection against severe disease and hospitalisation, which means post-vaccination, most cases of COVID-19 would be mild or asymptomatic but that in no way means we don’t follow COVID-appropriate rules,” said Saurabh Varshney, Director, AIIMS Deogarh.
“We as a community have to work collectively to contain the spread of the infection while celebrating festivals,” he noted.
Dr. Varshney said that unless people acted responsibly, it would be impossible to defeat the deadly SARS-Cov-2.
“If we want to go back to normal in the near future, we need to impose self-restrictions, and the most important is to avoid socialising during festivals. If we can limit our social gatherings for a few months till the time a large proportion of our population gets inoculated, we can successfully create a deterrent against spread of infection to a large extent,” he added.
