People are treating the Covid-19 outbreak as if it is a natural weather phenomenon and a third wave will be inevitable, but they fail to realise that future resurgence of the virus will purely depend on their behaviour, a top government official warned on Tuesday.
Union health ministry joint secretary Lav Aggarwal made the remark during the routine briefing on Covid-19, and cited similar observations made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who earlier in the day described recent reports of crowding at hill stations and markets as worrying.
“As restrictions are being relaxed, reports of gross violations in terms of Covid safe behavior such as use of mask or observing physical distancing are also being noted; be it from Chennai, Delhi, Chandigarh, or the state of Maharashtra, there is a section of people that does not observe Covid safe behaviour. The third wave may be caused because of this behaviour,” said Aggarwal.
He likened the conversation around a third wave of infections – India has had two waves with the latest in April-May being particularly devastating – as conversations about the weather. “We talk about the third wave as a weather update. What we fail to understand is that adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour or lack of it is what will prevent or cause any future waves,” he added.
Aggarwal cited some survey results where people provided weak excuses for not following Covid appropriate behaviour, especially using masks. Some said it was making it difficult for them to breathe; some said masks were uncomfortable when they were anyway maintaining distancing, and some others still claimed that masks provided no benefit at all.
{{/usCountry}}Aggarwal cited some survey results where people provided weak excuses for not following Covid appropriate behaviour, especially using masks. Some said it was making it difficult for them to breathe; some said masks were uncomfortable when they were anyway maintaining distancing, and some others still claimed that masks provided no benefit at all.
{{/usCountry}}“We have been seeing this kind of misconception even after one and a half years of fighting the pandemic. We need to work on the preventive aspects by use of simple tools such as masks, physical distancing, and hand hygiene to ensure the spread of infection is curbed, strain on the health care infrastructure is reduced and overall quality of care is improved,” said Aggarwal.
VK Paul, member (health), Niti Aayog, who was also present at the press briefing, also said that globally, a third wave of Covid-19 was being seen and urged people to make efforts to ensure that it did not happen in India.