New Delhi: India’s Health Minister has cautioned that the Indian Council of Medical Research’s Covid-19 first sero-survey should not create a sense of complacency in people with regard to the virus.
Indications from the up-coming second sero survey show that “India is far from having achieved any kind of herd immunity which necessitates that all of us should continue following Covid appropriate behavior,” Harsh Vardhan said September 27 in his social media interaction Samvaad-3.
The first sero-survey from May 2020 revealed a nationwide prevalence of novel coronavirus infection of only 0.73 percent.
In a reversal, the minister said the health ministry has advised against the wide usage of investigational therapies such as Remdesivir and plasma therapies. “Private hospitals have also been advised against routine use of these investigational therapies and doctors in the States/UTs have also been made aware of this,” he said.
Stating that the pandemic can only be fought when the government and society work in tandem, the Minister said a panel of experts were studying the emerging evidence that COVID not only impacts a patient’s lungs but other organ systems also.
Vardhan added that States and Union Territories have now been directed to lower the prices of Covid tests and said the ministry has asked them to engage private laboratories and arrive at a mutually agreeable lower rate.
Source: The Hindu