Mumbai: The BMC is ready to tackle if there is another wave of the pandemic as there are 4,441 Covid beds at private and civic-run hospitals, of which only six beds are occupied. Similarly, only two ICU and oxygen beds are occupied.
At present, there are 37 active Covid-19 patients in Mumbai and the recovery rate stands at 98.3%. A senior health official said the current BF.7 variant, which is causing a surge in Covid-19 cases in China, was found in Gujarat a few months back, but it didn’t cause any impact in Maharashtra or India.
Dr Ishwar Gilada: India, at this time, needs targeted testing
Dr Sanjeev Kumar, Additional Municipal Commissioner, said they have taken stock of the situation and they are very well prepared to handle the pandemic. “We will follow and implement whatever guidelines the Union ministry and State Government ask us to follow. At present, the infection rate in Mumbai is very low and there is no reason for citizens to panic.”
According to Dr Ishwar Gilada, "Currently, India is observing only around 1,000 weekly cases. And these cases are not even severe. In such situations, taking hypercritical steps is futile."
He elaborated, “This variant did not affect India. Rather, this helped us open up and bring the economy and our lives back on track to normalcy. We have been noticing these variants since the beginning of the year but they did not impact us as severely,” he said.
Mr Gilada added, “Random testing is also not required. India, at this time, needs targeted testing. It requires genome sequencing but not random testing." He added, "Rather than imposing restrictions, it is time that vaccinations should be opened and made available for every hospital and clinic.”
Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, said, “We are monitoring the global situation as well the local pattern of cases through the genome sequencing. We should follow Covid-appropriate behaviour wherever required and get vaccinated.”
Dr Trupti Gilada, Infectious Disease Specialist, Masina Hospital, said that lineages and sub-lineages arise because of the mutation of viruses. BF.7 is such a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant. It has been seen that the Omicron variant's transmissibility has been higher than the previous strains.
“The surge is believed to be because of a comparatively naive population. Countries which have already gone through an Omicron wave l are to be less susceptible to future sub-variants. BF.7 variant’s signs and symptoms are quite similar to other omicron sub-variants, like fever, sore throat and runny nose,” she said.
