The Covid trends in Chennai indicate that it is entering an endemic stage, says leading virologist Dr. Jacob John.
According to the Chennai corporation officials, there are no Covid19 clusters in Chennai. Cases appear to be sporadic. Even within families, there are no clusters. In many localities in Chennai, case numbers have shrunk to single-digit now. In some areas, it is zero.
City health officer Dr. M Jagadeesan said that the cases come from places people gather and are mostly isolated. He noted that unlike in the past, when huge families and gatherings turned into clusters, only one or two contacts are testing positive now. Currently, the city is registering as low as 20-30 new cases across eight zones.
One zonal health official said, during the first wave of the Covid19 pandemic, there was about 12,000 contract staff, including doctors, nurses, and other frontline workers. Subsequently, in the second wave, staff strength was cut to 6,000. And now, in addition to full-time corporation staff, there are only 200 nurses and 160 medical doctors assigned for Covid care. With the fall caseload and its severity, their roles have shifted to holding vaccination camps across the city. Even the state expenditure on covid care, including containment work, running care centers, and plying ambulances, have drastically reduced, remarked the official.
Stating his reasons, Virologist Dr. Jacob John said, “If the caseload persists like this with sporadic occurrences also if the trend continues, in a month or two it may enter an endemic stage.” However, he cautioned that we still need to keep our eyes open to the new subvariants of Omicron.
In contrast, Dr. Subramanian Swaminathan, an Infectious diseases specialist, underscored that the low Covid figures are because of low testing and the infection rate in the city is going underreported. He said that targeting testing of symptomatic and vulnerable people must continue.
Tamil Nadu recorded 35 new cases on Saturday, down from 44 cases on Friday. With 51 patients discharged, there are only 408 active cases. And no covid deaths were reported.
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