Will Indians pay heed to PM Modi’s cautionary words on Covid-19 resurgence?

New Delhi: After tackling Omicron variant surge at the beginning of the year, India is again witnessing rise in number of Covid-19 cases. The country recorded a single day rise of 1,088 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,30,38,016, while the active cases dipped to 10,870, according to the Union Health Ministry data on April 13, 2022.

The number of deaths climbed to 5,21,736 with 26 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. The active cases comprise 0.03 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate remained at 98.76 per cent, the ministry said.

Earlier Prime Minister Narendra Modi had cautioned the common public with his comments, “COVID-19 has not gone yet; it comes up in one form or another”.

Reacting to it, a healthcare industry expert stated: “What is behind this caution of our PM who speaks very deliberately and chooses his words carefully? This comment, we feel, is to be read in the backdrop of the following occurrences. Delhi has witnessed a 40% increase in COVID cases and Kerala has seen a 31.8 % rise in the last few days. Haryana, Mizoram and Maharashtra are also witnessing similar increases. Some of these states are litmus states who capture the trend in its seed a few days earlier than others do. The variant ‘XE’ case reported in Mumbai and Gujarat make the rest of his speech.”

“It seems the couple of weeks will see a strong resurgence of COVID cases in these states. Will it spread to the rest of India as before or not is the moot point. No PM would want COVID to resurface, because COVID not only attacks citizen’s health but also strikes the economy; but still when the PM is cautioning us, we should probably take it seriously. He is helping us hear a murmur without raising an alarm. We should pay heed to it,” he added.

Amid a resurgence of Covid cases in China and US, the government has warned five states to not let their guard down. In a letter to states, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan recently pointed out how a few states are reporting a higher contribution to India’s daily new Covid cases.

The letter was sent to the state governments in Kerala, Mizoram, Maharashtra, Delhi and Haryana. The states have been advised to continue with the five-fold strategy which includes testing, tracking,  treatment, vaccination and adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour.

Last week Delhi registered 176 new Covid-19 cases and Kerala reported 2,321 new cases, accounting to 31.8 per cent of lndia’s new cases.