COVID 3rd WAVE…

It was December 31st 2019 when Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, China, reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province. A novel coronavirus was eventually identified in the coming days. WHO had set up the IMST (Incident Management Support Team) across the three levels of the organization: headquarters, regional headquarters and country level, putting the organization on an emergency footing for dealing with the outbreak. Technical guidance was issued by WHO for detection, testing and management of the potential new cases when the knowledge about the virus was very primitive.

The Emergency committee formed by WHO after a series of discussions during the second half of January 2020 came to a consensus and declared the novel Corona Virus outbreak (2019-nCOV) as Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30th January 2021. This was the 6th time, WHO declared a disease to be of PHEIC after the genesis of International Health Regulations in 2005. India reported its first case of coronavirus on 30 January 2020- a student who arrived in Kerala from Wuhan and tested positive for the virus.

The cases kept on rising till it reached peak during the month of September and then receded. This was named as the First wave of COVID-19 pandemic. As the cases dipped in few months, there was a growing concern regarding the rerise of the cases and expectedly there was a Second wave of COVID-19 pandemic during 2021. In a similar way as the first wave, cases reached a peak during the month of April 2021 during the second wave. This time children were affected in greater number compared with the first wave. There was a shift in the affected age group from elderly population to the younger age group. Studies on COVID-19 pandemic although showed that there was a four-fold increase in the infectivity rate during the second wave when compared to the first wave, the mortality rate did not climb much as previous one.

Various studies conducted during the initial waves of the COVID-19 pandemic helped in facing the further waves in an effective manner. The third wave was expected to have a higher infectivity rate than the previous ones. For preventing the morbidity and mortality due to the infection and its complications, various initiatives have been taken by the State and the Central Governments such as coverage of at least 60-70% of the target population, further strengthening of the infrastructure of the health care facilities, provision of facilities for management of Paediatric cases in terms of man and material, provision of drugs and logistics as per need basis.

Though the Governments are striving hard for restoration of health and maintenance of healthy environment for the people of the country, it is the responsibility of the people themselves to lead a healthy life. To conclude, the final impact of the third wave largely depends on the attitude and behaviour of the people which remains as the main pillar of the Health of Nation.