THE Winter of COVID in OCTOBER
With life coming back to normalcy where people have started to adjust to the new norms of wearing a mask and being vaccinated, COVID-19 cases seems to be on a downward spiral and especially in India and USA where the most number of cases of the virus has been detected. People have started wearing masks as a part of their life and the elderly are under constant supervision of nurses and health care specialists. But with the emergence of the new delta variant due to the virus mutating further, may as well again strike fear.
Countries like Australia have already initiated lockdowns and shut downs in parts of the nation like Canberra after a reported outbreak in Sydney has spread throughout the region. Sydney has been under lockdown since July and Canberra has followed suite since August 12th. Now India stares at an indistinct future, where a maximum of 74 crore of the population have been vaccinated with atleast 1 dose and 18 crore being fully vaccinated, this puts the population being fully vaccinated at a mere 13%. People who have been vaccinated with 2 doses have less chances to contract the virus.
Research carried out by many advisory committees have informed states to be cautious in October-November and necessary home care services and health care infrastructure needs to be in place. The Ministry of Home Affairs formed panel has also laid down that the peak of the third wave will be seen in Mid-October to November, further warning and advising citizens to make sure they are vaccinated and at home care services are being done.
Cases where citizens who have been fully vaccinated and wearing a mask still contracting the virus with low symptoms have come to light. Nursing-at-home services and Home care services for the elderly and specially-abled have to equip themselves for the coming months to tackle this imminent threat and prevent the health infrastructure from crumbling again. The hospitalised children and at-home treated elderly need to be under constant supervision and care by specially trained nurses and bed side assistants to prevent contraction of the delta variant.
The coming months seem to be the most important as experts have suggested that the third wave is coming, with Madhya Pradesh and Kerala already showing high cases on a daily basis with numbers growing further and further we should prepare ourselves as though the Third wave has already arrived. Studies have showed that the immunity from the vaccines only last 3-6 months, putting our nation in a very peculiar situation with the coming months as this would put more than half the population at risk due to either not being vaccinated or having their immunity fall to less than 50% due to vaccine losing its antibody levels over time.
“GET VACCINATED, STAY SAFE & WEAR A MASK AT ALL TIMES.”
