Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday elucidated on the government’s plan to tackle the upcoming covid surge. He also talked about the government’s approval to Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine and said that it will work as a precautionary dose. He stated that the government is working towards minimising Omicron BF.7 variant’s impact and lauded India’s roadmap in handling previous Covid surges.
While addressing the India News Manch Conclave, Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said, “Covid mutates continuously and we have seen a number of variants like beta, delta, omicron, omicron BA.1, BA.2, etc. My experience has been that the wave starts from China, Japan and hits South Asia in 20-35 days. As the no. of cases are increasing in those countries, it is crucial for us to be vigilant.”
“India has a large population. The way PM Modi handled the situation in the first and second wave is appreciable. Third wave couldn’t harm the country much because of the vaccination drive. As a result, India has become one of the first countries to revive its economy after the lockdown. Today, the GDP growth of India is 7%, which is a positive indication,” the minister added.
On being asked about the BF.7 wave in China and the government’s roadmap to prevent the situation, he said, “We need to be cautious but there is no need to be afraid. We have to face the challenge and we did it during the previous wave. Follow social distancing, wear masks in public places, use sanitizer. The government is taking all the required measures on the borders. We have started 2% random checking of the passengers. In the coming two days, we will make the testing of the people coming from seaports compulsory.
The import and export of medicines will be under surveillance. We are taking steps one by one to avoid any crisis in the country.”
He further talked about government’s current measures to tackle the BF.7 variant’s surge and said, “We have started working on controlling the effect of the new variant in our country. We are alerting the states and I have written a letter to the Centre and we will take all the necessary measures to tackle the situation.”
In 2020, the cases increased rapidly in the country because of the infected people coming from other countries. Later this month, there is an event in Gaya, in which more than 60,000 people will gather including envoys from Japan and Korea. On being asked about the government’s view on such events, Mansukh Mandaviya said, “We will keep an eye on people coming from overseas. We will ensure their testing and tracing as well. Proper isolation measures will be taken.
We don’t require any new information for this management as our experience from past pandemic is helping us. We have ramped up the Genome sequencing to trace variants on the district level.
We are keeping a constant eye on the mutation of the new variants.”
He further talked about the vaccination drive in the country and said, “The government wanted the people to take the precautionary dose, especially the senior citizen. But people thought the situation is under control and didn’t take the precautionary dose seriously. However, the precautionary dose is still available to the public foe free and we have approved Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine, which will act as a precautionary dose.”
