Spike outside; 0 cases in Bengaluru
Posted 23 Dec 2022 | Source: https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/
As China and other countries are seeing a recurrence in covid cases, Bengaluru has scored a ‘zero’ after many months. According to the covid bulletin issued by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), at present there are no covid patients being treated in hospitals.
A few months ago, there were many patients being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) and ventilator. However, till Monday, there were at least two patients being treated in general ward and even they have been discharged. Overall, in the state, there are four patients who are in hospital. Since November 1 till date, there has been only one covid death in the city and eight in the state.
According to Dr K Sudhakar , Health Minister of Karnataka, in the wake of new variants being found in other countries, the union health ministry has directed states to send samples of all new covid cases for genomic sequencing and Karnataka has already taken measures to implement the same.
“A few countries including China and Japan are witnessing sudden spurt in cases. China is witnessing more hospitalisation. Therefore, we need to focus on booster dose coverage,” he said.
“We will have to take certain precautionary measures in the wake of the global situation. Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) has a high inflow of international passengers. We will start screening passengers there,” he added.
Many analysts are cautiously studying as to how the current spurt in covid cases may affect India. The covid outbreak started in China during December 2019 and by March 2020, it started spreading in India.
Vijayanand, a covid data analyst, told Bangalore Mirror that the current variants in China are only sublineages- BA.2.75, BA.5, BQ.1, and XBB
A latest Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) report states that XBB, a BJ.1/BM.1.1.1 recombinant lineage with breakpoint in the spike protein was presently appearing in multiple countries.
“This recombinant lineage was first detected in Singapore and the US and has also been identified in multiple states in India. However, there has been no report of increase in severity of disease or increase in hospitalisation associated with these variants,” said the report.
“People are currently participating in “revenge tourism,” discarding masks, and many haven’t even taken their boosters. Mask usage must be rigorously continued. Additionally, testing has decreased significantly, so rates in India would undoubtedly appear lower,” said Dr. Swati Rajagopal, Consultant at Aster CMI Hospital.
