Highlights
- Virus is affecting children mildly: Dr Taneja
- Follow COVID appropriate behaviour and get vaccinated: Dr Nayar
- India will witness a peak in COVID-19 in January: Dr Nayar
New Delhi: Omicron is behaving very mildly and rarely affecting newborn babies, a senior doctor at Max Smart Super Specialty Hospital, Saket said on Monday. India has been witnessing a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases for the past few weeks. Taking cognisance of this information, Chief Advisor, Paediatrics and Infectious Diseases, Max Smart Super Speciality Hospital, Saket, Dr. Arvind Taneja told ANI today, This virus is behaving very mildly and rarely affecting newborn babies to the extent that, even mothers who have given birth during this period are not affected. The babies are not born with any defects or abnormalities.
This virus is affecting children mildly. Mildly here means that they are getting a mild running nose, cough. In a few cases, high fever was reported but that does translate to the Omicron effect. If any person in the family is detected positive for COVID-19, they should home-quarantine themselves. That is the only precaution to take at the moment to curtail the spread of the virus, he said.
Taneja said, I believe that once the virus comes into the home, it spreads like wildfire. The third wave has already hit Delhi and major metropolises like Mumbai. Within a few weeks in January, the Omicron driven third wave will come like a Tsunami and will also disappear like a Tsunami.
Also Read: Work From Home For Private Offices In Delhi, Free Online Yoga For COVID Patients In Home Isolation
The doctor also lauded the Prime Minister’s decision to roll out precautionary dose of COVID-19 vaccine for people aged above 60 years and vaccines for teens between 15-18 years of age. He said,
It is better to immunise this age group to reduce transmissibility. Senior citizens fall under the category of high-risk groups. Every healthcare, frontline worker, senior citizen and teens between 15-18 years of age should be fully vaccinated.
The COVID-19 vaccination program for children aged between 15 and 18 years has been started on January 3, 2022.India achieved a milestone in its COVID-19 vaccination drive as the cumulative vaccine doses administered in the country surpassed the 150 crore mark on Friday. A total of 4,033 cases of the Omicron variant of Coronavirus have been reported so far. Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases (1,216), followed by Rajasthan (529) and Delhi (513). About 1,552 patients infected with Omicron have recovered. The Ministry further informed that the active caseload in the country currently stands at 7,23,619 which accounts for 2.03 per cent of the country’s total number of cases. The weekly positivity rate currently is at 7.29 per cent, while the daily positivity rate stands at 13.29 per cent.
Noting that there has been a sudden rise in COVID-19 cases across India, a health expert has also advised people to follow COVID appropriate behaviour and get vaccinated saying that precaution is the only important thing to protect ourselves from the virus and all its mutations.
Also Read: COVID-19 Cases In Delhi Will Definitely Peak This Week: Health Minister Satyendar Jain
For all variants of COVID-19, be it Delta, Omicron or any other variant, precaution is most important, which we call as COVID appropriate behaviour. This involves social distancing, hand hygiene, wearing masks and getting vaccinated. There is no medication as yet that can 100 per cent cure the disease. Prevention is the only thing that can protect us, Dr Sandeep Nayar, HOD, Respiratory diseases BLK Hospital .
According to the expert, India will witness a peak in COVID-19 in January after which the cases might rapidly decline as in the case of South Africa.
COVID-19 cases have been rising for last 8-9 days (nationally); cases in Delhi, Mumbai are almost 4-5 times more. With the surge in cases, it is expected that a peak will be witnessed in January. Hopefully, a sharp decline will be there in peak as we saw in South Africa when cases soared suddenly and then declined, he noted.
Emphasising the importance of vaccination against the disease, Dr Nayar said that India is on the right path.Now that we are also vaccinating the younger population in the age group 15 to 18 years and also discussions are on about the booster dose, India is on the right track. The vaccine prevents the disease from taking a severe form, he said. As seen in the past, we defeated polio and smallpox with vaccination. Similarly, vaccination is important at the moment, he added.
Also Read: Omicron Should Not Be Categorised As ‘Mild’, It Is Hospitalizing And Killing People: WHO Chief
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, that is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
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