Is infection decreasing in the country?: WHO official said - Corona has not gone anywhere, still need to be careful

World Health Organization senior official Poonam Khetrapal said on Saturday that despite the decrease in the cases of Covid-19 in many states and cities, there is a risk of infection there. He said that attention should be paid to following proper rules to reduce infection. In fact, on Thursday, the Union Health Ministry had said that in some areas there has been a steady decline in the cases of the corona. However, this situation needs to be carefully assessed.

Coronavirus has not gone anywhere

WHO official Poonam Khetrapal said that the risk of Covid-19 is high and no country has been able to come out of it. Coronavirus still exists. So we need to be alert. He said that our focus should be on reducing the infection.

Cases decreasing since last few days

There was a sudden jump in the cases of corona in the country. A total of 3,47,254 new cases of the corona were registered on 21 January. Since then the number of daily infections has been decreasing. Particularly in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Odisha, Haryana, and West Bengal, there has been a decrease in corona cases and positivity raids.

We are still in the middle of the pandemic

Poonam Khetrapal said on the question of the end-stage of the epidemic that this disease is not going anywhere. We have to keep in mind that we are amid a virus. Measures have to be taken to prevent it from spreading. He said that the reduction of the epidemic does not mean that the virus is no longer a cause for concern.

Omicron infects the respiratory tract

The World Health Organization official said that compared to the delta variant, Omicron infects the tissues of our respiratory tract. Whereas, the delta variant was directly infecting the lungs. This is why the mortality rate or the risk of serious illness from Omicron infection is low, he said. However, in countries where this infection is spreading, the number of hospitalizations has increased, which is affecting the health system.

vaccination should be increased

He said that there is still a need to increase corona vaccination in the country. We have seen that it is protecting against infection. Specifically, the booster dose is giving protection against Omicron. Due to this people are less at risk of becoming seriously ill, hospitalization and mortality.