Rising Covid cases in China and US not cause for concern: TAC

Though Covid cases and hospitalisations have been rising in China and US, and air travel restrictions no longer exist, there’s no cause for concern now, according to the state’s Covid Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).

“I don’t think any specific precautions are needed, as hospitalisations have not gone up in India,” TAC member and virologist Dr V Ravi said. As per the state Covid bulletin of December 9, only six out of 461 active cases in the state had been hospitalised for more than seven days.

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As per this bulletin, Karnataka’s average Test Positivity Rate (TPR) in the previous seven days was 0.54 per cent, with Bengaluru and Chikkamagaluru reporting the highest district-level TPR of 2.5 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively. Seven other districts reported TPR below 1 per cent, whereas 17 districts reported no cases at all over the seven days.

While the deaths in the state had peaked this August (97 cases), it then declined to 41 in September, 15 in October, and four in November.

Dr Ravi added that it was too early to say anything about the new C.H.1.1 Omicron sub-variant detected recently in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

“But the other Omicron sub-variants that have emerged in India in the last 6-8 months have not impacted admissions or mortality,” he said.

Despite several new variants being reported in states like Maharashtra in the last few months, cities like Mumbai report very low Covid numbers, TAC Chairman Dr M K Sudarshan points out. In fact, New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai had only 18-61 active cases as of December 11, compared to 1,378 in Bengaluru.

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Dr Sudarshan attributes the increased cases in China to its ineffective zero-Covid policy, and those in US to the winter there.

“In the US, the elderly population and comorbidities are high. So during winter hospitalisations would increase due to Covid or other viruses like influenza,” he said.

He said that only a new immune-escapant Variant of Concern (VoC) reported anywhere in the world would be a matter of concern.

“This has not been reported yet. Currently there are only sub-lineages of Omicron itself,” Dr Sudarshan says. He adds that the Centre’s health and aviation ministries have to take any decision regarding restricting air travel from other countries, if at all.

He advises that the elderly and people with comorbidities should follow masking and avoid exposure to chilly weather this winter, to avoid Covid and other lung infections.