‘India’s situation much better’: Dr Guleria amid COVID surge in China, US

Amid the sudden surge in COVID cases in some countries particularly in neighbouring country - China, and the chaos related to it, former AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria assured citizens that India’s situation is ‘much better as compared to China.

He said that India’s situation is better than China's because of the successful vaccination strategy and the country might not see a similar situation owing to the high rate of natural infection.

“India's situation is much better as compared to that of China because our vaccination strategy has been very successful, most of the people in the high-risk group have taken booster doses & natural infection has happened,” said Dr Randeep Guleria, as quoted by ANI.

Dr Guleria, who recently joined Medanta Hospital (Gurugram) as chairman of the Institute of Internal Medicine and Respiratory and Sleep Medicine stressed the importance of proper surveillance of COVID cases so that the situation in the particular area/region can be controlled before the virus is spread in other areas.

“We can see that the cases are not rising anywhere. But we need to be vigilant. Proper surveillance is needed so that if cases rise anywhere we pick it up at the earliest & conduct testing so that it can be seen that no new variant is coming up ¬ spreading further,” headed.

In view of the sudden COVID surge in Japan, the USA, Korea, Brazil, and particularly in China, the Central Government yesterday wrote to States and UTs alarming them to gear up the genome sequencing of the COVID positive samples to track any new variant.

"In view of the sudden spurt of cases being witnessed in Japan, USA, Korea, Brazil, and China, it's essential to gear up the whole genome sequencing of positive case samples to track variants through Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) network," Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said.

Several media reports and video clip are coming from China showing ICUs and IICUs are crammed with COVID-positive patients and hospital rooms are filled with dead bodies.

The news raised concerns prompting the Indian Government to take necessary action. Today, the Health Ministry convened a review meeting with top health officials to assess the country's COVID situation. During the meeting, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya directed officials to be alert and strengthen surveillance amid a surge in COVID cases globally.

After the meeting, Mandaviya assured the countrymen that the Government is prepared to deal with any situation and there is no need for panic.

"COVID is not over yet. I have directed all concerned to be alert and strengthen surveillance. We are prepared to manage any situation," tweeted Union Health Minister after the meeting.