Concentrated spurt of virus in Vidarbha: Maharashtra health official

The coronavirus is showing a concentrated spurt in Maharashtras Vidarbha region and the infection is slowly getting transmitted to other places like Pune and Mumbai a senior state health official has said If not controlled it can spread to otherstates in the country Dr Subhash Salunke technical adviser to the Maharashtra government on COVID19 outbreak told reporters here on Wednesday nightThe official who received a COVID19 vaccine shot on Tuesday also said the state could have done much better as far as vaccination is concerned Maharashtra on Wednesday witnessed a significant rise in coronavirus cases with more than 8000 new infections coming to light in a single day after a gap of over four months health officials saidThe state has so far reported a total of 2121119 COVID19 cases as per official figures It is very difficult to say whether this is a second wave but the virus is showing a concentrated spurt in some areas like Vidarbha starting from Nagpur Amravati till Aurangabad located in Marathwada region the official said Now the virus is slowly getting transmitted to other districts like Pune and Mumbai he saidIf we do not control it it will spread to other states in the country Whether it will spread 100 per cent nobody is sure but yes it has the potential he said On reasonsbehind thespike in COVID19 cases in some districts of Vidarbha he said there are three factors the first one is the virus its structure mutations and capacity of transmission the second factor is the person who harbours the virus and transmits it to others and third is the environment weather housing structure and pollutionSo an interplay of the three factors is responsible for the transmission and its ups and downs he said He said every viral disease which is outbreakprone has shown ups and downs so in the last two months COVID19 cases showed a downward trend and now there is an upward trend Dr Salunke also said that as indicated by the director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR the coronavirus mutation in Amravati and Yavatmal districts is not responsible for the present surge in MaharashtraHowever the ICMR has not been able to come out exactly on whether there is any new mutant or not he said A study on this is currently being done by the Pune based National Institute of Virology and the National Centre for Disease Control in New Delhi and other labs and samples from eight districts have been sent there he said The results of these studies will be available by this monthend he informedOn precautions and measures that need to be taken to contain the virus the official said there is no need for any new strategy to tackle the situation as the existing strategies are quite adequate and effective Lockdown is the last resort Setting up of micro containment zones restrictions on movement in containment areas increased surveillance contacttracing and increase in testing and isolation of active cases are some of the key steps which can check spread of the virus he saidAsked about the COVID19 vaccination in Maharashtra Dr Salunke said the state could have done better So far 1080675 have been inoculated in the state As a matter of fact I have been vehemently arguing that the Government of India should have designed communication strategies before January 16 We knew that some doctors nurses and others were hesitant about taking the jab Vaccine hesitancy is known phenomena the official saidDr Salunke said he had asked his colleagues in the health ministry as to why they did not make preparations earlier to address the apprehensions of those who were going to be given the vaccine shots This is the reason that the vaccination number in the state is on the lower side he saidThere is a failure on our side also that we as doctors should have been more proactive and should have convinced our colleagues and nurses to come forward to take the vaccine he said The Centre on Wednesday announced that people over 60 years and those above 45 with comorbidities can get COVID19 vaccine from March 1This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever