HYDERABAD: While Telangana is among the five states that received an alert from the Centre on Friday to maintain strict watch and take pre-emptive action to control the spread of Covid-19, officials say that there is callousness among people regarding receiving the booster dose and getting tested for Covid-19 if there are symptoms.
However, experts warned that acting at the eleventh hour will not help, but caution and care will keep the numbers low.
The Centre noted that Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Karnataka were reporting a surge in number of daily cases, and that genome sequence testing was increasing. Except for Karnataka, the remaining states reported the BA4 sub-variety of Omicron cases.
The Centre had asked the states to be vigilant and keep an eye out for emerging clusters. However, officials claimed that the rise in cases is due to people's negligence as many are yet to get vaccinated while there others who do not bother to get tested in case of symptoms.
“Some are reluctant and some question the relevance of vaccines and tests now, but this is incorrect. We are trying to convince them,” an official said.
Meanwhile, Telangana’s current booster dose coverage is still low, even five months after the drive began. So far, only 8.1 lakh people have taken the jab out of 2.7 crore population eligible for the precautionary dose.
Dr NK Arora, head of the Covid-19 working group at the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), previously told TOI that breakthrough infections from BA.4 and BA.5 have been detected in Telangana as well. “These infections can occur even after two doses or after a precaution dose, but taking the shot will help the patients have fewer complications and avoid hospitalisation.”
Telangana has reported over 50 cases per day in the last few days. Even after Telangana launched the Har Dasthak Vaccine programme to increase the precaution dose coverage, there has been no rise in coverage.
