Second wave will die down in three months, says Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Biocon’s Chairman and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has said it would take three months before the Covid-19 numbers returned to the pre-second wave levels.

She spoke on Monday while opening a new vaccination facility at Syngene, Biocon’s integrated research, development and manufacturing organisation, saying that vaccination is the only answer to the surge.

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“The infectivity rate during the second wave appears to be fast. Vaccinations must be increased and the number of public gatherings must be limited if the outbreak is to be controlled,” she said.

A government source who did not want to be named said that Bengaluru Urban’s case numbers alone are set to dramatically increase in the days to come, but did not provide specifics.

Rampant violations

Meantime, J Manjunath, Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru Urban, agreed that the situation is fraught, especially in Bengaluru, due to the sheer scale of violations of Covid Appropriate Behaviour (CAB).

He also pointed out that the city’s outlying areas are racking up cases. According to the district office, it has jurisdictional oversight over 36 primary health centres, three general hospitals and three command health centres.

“Within this area that we control in Bengaluru, we are getting an average of 400 cases per day, of which 175 to 200 are in Anekal taluk,” the district commissioner said, pointing that the taluk was becoming a focal point of the outbreak.

He added that the high caseload was due to people coming from Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

District officials said authorities have stopped 1,500 vehicles so far at the border post at Attibele since March 24 and have sent back some 50 vehicles because their occupants did not have a Covid-19 negative certificate.

A source added that a handful of people with the disease had been found trying to cross border posts.

Officials said increasing the test rates, especially at workplaces, could help limit the number of cases being found daily.

Rama N S, CEO of the Electronics City Industrial Township Authority (ELCITA), called for a provision to be added to also vaccinate the families of office and industrial workers above the age of 45. Manjunath said such a provision is possible.