SHAKEELA ANDRABI
SRINAGAR: Health experts are sure that if people of India will not follow COVID guidelines properly then there is possibility of third wave of COVID, which would be stronger than first and second waves.
Recently AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria has said that there might be many scenarios of possible third wave if it comes. If all restrictions are lifted and a variant is able to escape immunity, then the next wave can be bigger than the second wave, Dr Guleria said, adding if there would be a balance between restrictions and reopening, the impact will not be as huge as it was during the second wave, provided the virus also remains stable.
Jammu and Kashmir also witnessed a deadly COVID second wave, with thousands of people getting infected by the deadly virus.
Recently LG Manoj Sinha said if COVID third wave hits Jammu and Kashmir, people will be the responsible for it. It is very much true that people are not following proper COVID appropriate behaviour, wearing face-masks and maintaining social distancing.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration has ordered no congressional Eid prayers, as there is possibility of COVID third wave and people are advised to follow guidelines and make proper arrangements for Eid prayers at their local mosques, under proper COVID guidelines.
On the other hand, thousands of people are busy in special Eid shopping in Kashmir Valley, without maintaining any social distancing, or wearing face-masks. None of the COVID guidelines are being followed by people at any place in Srinagar City or any other district.
STATE TIMES correspondent visited many markets on Sunday morning and found violation of COVID guidelines in every market especially in old city, in bakery shops, vegetable shops and clothing shops at Nowhatta, Gojwara, Khwaja Bazar and Hawal Chowk.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir government on Sunday permitted Government as well as private educational institutions to seek limited attendance of vaccinated staff for administrative purposes.
An order issued by the SEC said that significant improvement has been observed in COVID-19 cases, vaccination and compliance to COVID Appropriate Behavior by some districts, even there is need of further improvement in the interest of public health in all districts.
If people are not following COVID guidelines and are hesitating to taking vaccine, there will be more chances of COVID third wave in coming weeks. He appealed to people of Jammu and Kashmir not to take off face-mask as face-mask and vaccine are safe passage to avoid third wave.
Jammu and Kashmir COVID Advisory Board Chairman Dr. M.S Khooro said that it has been assured to advisory board that they would take all the necessary steps to contain COVID cases and all the major hospitals would be equipped with latest machinery and substantial amount of oxygen.
In this report, they proposed many aspects to contain COVID cases besides tackling the situation, if cases rise in coming days or weeks.
Experts believe that as evident from the third wave in other countries, vaccines are working, as the rate of hospitalisation has come down. They also said that available vaccines can be tweaked after detailed studies, if new variants emerge.
It has been seen that overall COVID-19 situation in India is improving steadily with daily news of infections falling, but a spike is being observed in few pockets–like in northeastern states and in Kerala. Maharashtra’s COVID-19 graph has hit a plateau. The jury is still out on whether these are the early signs of a third wave, while the government has been repeatedly cautioning people to follow COVID SoPs religiously.