Covid-19 3rd wave may not hit Odisha, ready to tackle any situation: DMET Director

Bhubaneswar: The Director of the Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DMET) Dr CBK Mohanty on Friday allayed fears of a third wave of Covid-19 pandemic in Odisha and appealed people not to panic and strictly abide by Covid appropriate behaviour.

“The State government is ready to face all kind of exigencies in case the third wave of Covid-19 pandemic hits the State. Our preparedness doesn’t mean that the State is definitely going to face the third wave. It is just a prediction. Therefore, we should not panic,” said Mohanty.

“People have been advised to strictly follow Covid appropriate behaviour. Vaccination drives have been taken up in war footing while infrastructures are being readied to tackle any situation in view of the third wave,” stated Mohanty.

Further allaying fears of the highly transmissible ‘Delta Plus’ or ‘AY.1’ variant of Sars-CoV-2, he said, “By June 7, as many as 63 genomes of ‘Delta Plus’ variant have been identified across the globe. Out of these, 6 cases were reported from India. If the numbers are compared, we are safe and therefore is no need to be scared,” the DMET Director added.

Asked about the seroprevalence study conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on the disproportionate effects of coronavirus disease on children than adults, Mohanty said, “The proportion of infection in children in the first wave is almost the same as the second wave. The number of Covid-19 infection in children witnessed a slight high this time as the number of infections was also comparatively more during the second wave. Children are relatively resistant and the infection rate among them is less than the adults and elders. They are mostly asymptomatic and do not need ventilators or ICUs to recover,” stated the DMET Director.