As the wedding season takes over India, the situation remains similar to what was witnessed before the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of COVID-19 cases across India is on a steady decline over the past few months, as the second wave of the pandemic has finally subsided. People have now returned to their normal lives, for the most part, trying to resume their pre-COVID lives.
Even though many states are reported a marginal number of COVID-19 cases, the wedding season in India can trigger the third wave if proper precautions and COVID-19 appropriate behavior are not followed by the people, as per experts.
Dr Naveet Wig, Chairperson of COVID Task Force in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), has said that the present situation in India resembles the time before the second wave of COVID-19, and thus everyone should remain extra careful of their surroundings.
As quoted by ANI, Dr Wig said, “Looking around us, the feeling one gets is that we have overcome COVID-19 pandemic and the public at large has lowered the guard. It resembles the situation before the second wave hit India.”
The doctor further added, “The past one and half years of COVID have taught us a lot, the most important of which is not to underestimate the possibility of a new wave. It is important to keep up our guard as the next wave may be lurking around the corner.”
Dr Wig also talked about the resurgence of COVID-19 in Europe and how authorities are now forced to go back to strict measures and lockdowns in certain areas, which seemed unlikely when the second wave of the pandemic subsided.
Dr Shuchin Bajaj, founder, and director of Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals observed that the reason why the deadly second wave hit India was that people had become lax and had stopped taking proper precautions, leading to a tragically high death toll.
While talking to ANI, Dr Bajaj said, “Festive and wedding seasons are the times when we need to adhere to the Covid guidelines. Our negligence can lead to a grave situation. We have already seen how our ignorance towards following the Covid-19 guidelines had led to the deadly second wave.
“So, in the times of celebration too, we need to follow the Covid appropriate behaviours including social distancing, wearing masks, and washing hands to avoid the emergence of the third wave. Fully vaccinated people should also follow the guidelines diligently,” he added.
Dr Parinita Kaur, the internal medicine doctor at Aakash Healthcare super specialty hospital, said, “A large number of people attend gatherings like weddings. So if gatherings happen, not only maximum people will be travelling from one city or state to another but also from one country to another.”
Warning the likelihood of a spike in COVID-19 infections, Dr Kaur said, “This will cause an inflow of people from other parts of the world and the infection might spread in such scenario. Be it flu, COVID or any other infection, the number of cases increases on exposure to infected people. The same happened earlier with swine flu. The infection was spread because of gatherings like weddings.”
“The same has not been observed after Diwali this year but it doesn’t mean that we lower our guards. If we are attending a wedding function, we have to follow COVID guidelines like wearing masks and using sanitiser so that we do not expose ourselves to the infection,” she added, urging people to follow all the required precautions.
(With ANI inputs)
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 "COVID-19 third wave in India? Experts urge everyone to follow appropriate behaviour")
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