Covid: Doctors warn against gatherings

They have recommended a five-day isolation period for mild patients, especially the healthcare workers

(From left) Yogiraj Ray, Abhijit Chowdhury, Kunal Sarkar and Diptendu Sarkar at SSKM Hospital on Tuesday.: Bishwarup Dutta

A group of doctors on Tuesday warned against gatherings that could aggravate the spike in Covid cases and overwhelm the healthcare system.

They also recommended a five-day isolation period for mild patients, especially the healthcare workers.

The doctors said Bengal was already riding the third wave. Wearing masks and maintaining social distance are a must. Though preliminary evidence suggests that most patients are having mild symptoms, it could still overwhelm hospitals when even a miniscule percentage of a large infected population requires hospitalisation, cautioned the medicos.

“Undoubtedly, we are amidst the initial days of the third wave. In the next two weeks, the number of infections would rise further and I would request everyone to avoid all kinds of gatherings,” said Abhijit Chowdhury, a public health expert and a member of the state government’s Covid task force.

Chowdhury censured an attitude — among a section of people — that Covid-19 was not something to take guard against.

“Many people shrug it off by saying dhur Covid kichu noy (Covid is nothing)’, while it could actually be suicidal,” he said.

“Preliminary evidence shows that most people are having mild symptoms. But when the number of infected people rises, there would still be some people who would need hospitalisation,” he said.

Chowdhury and other doctors, who were speaking at a news conference at the SSKM Hospital, urged people to show self-restraint.

Cardiac surgeon Kunal Sarkar and infectious diseases specialist Yogiraj Ray were among the other doctors present at the event. They cautioned against any irresponsible behaviour that could still lead to a rerun of the first and second waves.

The doctors also called for a reduction in the isolation period to five days from the existing 10 days, especially for the healthcare workers.

Doctors who were vaccinated about a year ago are getting infected in large numbers, a fact that hints that their immunity is waning.

Dr Sarkar said it would be difficult for hospitals to provide care to patients if isolation for them was still kept at 10 days. “The state government suggests one isolation period while the Centre suggests something else, I think. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention of the US is saying five-day isolation is fine. There is a lot of confusion,” he said. “I would say that 10 days or more isolation would be difficult for hospitals, if too many healthcare workers are away from the system,” he said.

Dr Ray said there were still many people, who had taken either a single dose or no vaccine at all. They would be more susceptible to hospitalisation. “If the number of infected people rises tremendously, even a very small percentage of hospitalisation would mean a huge pressure for the medical facilities. We have to avoid that situation,” said Dr Ray.