Govt must open vaccination for younger population, says COVID Care Head at Max Hospital

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

For the first time ever, India has reported more than 2 lakh COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours. This is the second-highest daily case count reported by any country in the world.

The United States reported more than 3 lakh cases early in January. India has also doubled the daily cases from 1 lakh to 2 lakh in just 10 days. So cases have doubled, but, at the same time, total tests have only grown by 16 percent.

The daily death toll remains above 1,000. This is the second straight day India has reported more than 1,000 COVID deaths.

Maharashtra has reported nearly 59,000 cases. But cases have largely stabilised around that mark for the last few days. Uttar Pradesh reported its highest-ever daily spike of over 20,000 cases. Delhi and Karnataka also reported their biggest spike in 24 hours.

India needs to ramp up testing. Among the states that are doing the most tests, Delhi tops the list. In fact, the number of tests carried out in Delhi is more than 5-times the national average. Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Telangana are also testing well above the national average.

On the Vaccination front, India has inoculated just over 7 percent of its population with at least one dose of the vaccine. Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, and Gujarat have vaccinated about 13 to 14 percent of their population which is twice the national average.

Dr. Sandeep Budhiraja, Head – COVID Care at Max Hospitals, and Dr. Sudarshan Ballal, Chairman, Manipal Hospitals discuss the COVID situation across the country.

Talking about the infection Dr. Budhiraja said, “We are seeing a lot of differences in terms of clinical presentation of patient in the second wave, actually for Delhi, this is the fourth wave now. What we are seeing is more younger people coming down with this illness, though fortunately, the severity of this illness in the younger patients is not as bad, overall severity of diseases is as severe as last or maybe even more severe.”

He further added, “Mortality rate is no less this time. What we are seeing is earlier and much severe lung involvement. People are complaining of longer duration of fever, much higher fever, much severe constitutional symptoms like body ache as so overall I think the virus is much more infectious.”

Dr. Ballal said, “I think COVID has been a scourge for society and healthcare in general. Delhi and Bangalore seem to be running parallel to each other and certainly maybe 2-3 weeks behind Maharashtra. So there is some light at the end of the tunnel that may be in another 2-3 weeks we will go pass the peak. As of now, the situation is quite serious, all hospital beds have been taken up at least in the private sector and these are the combination of a significant increase in the COVID patients along with the non-COVID patients who are already there.”

He further added, “This time the COVID is little different from what it was in the last time. One it is spreading very fast though the overall seriousness in the mortality seems to be less.”

“The other point is that lot of younger people are getting infected and they are relatively asymptomatic or mild asymptomatic but they are spreading to others. Also, COVID epidemic this time has affected the middle-class and the upper class much more than what we would have seen in the low source economic status.”

Watch the video for in-depth analysis.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow