Bracing for a possible third wave of the pandemic, the Advisory Committee constituted by the Government has recommended meticulous surveillance protocol during the period between June and December 2021 to monitor and block Covid-19 third wave in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
One should be preparing for the worst following which all necessary measures and precautions are being be taken.
Committee has stated that the third wave could be mild, less severe or more severe based on interplay of virus, variants and vaccine. If third wave is not disrupted it can be more severe.
Period between June and December 2021 is expected to be the time of the third wave, so intensive surveillance is the need of the hour.
Committee said that it is speculated that the segment of population involved in the first and second wave may be less affected or not affected at all as such but children, pregnant women and the suburban population needs to be watched out more closely.
The protocol set by the committee works around several principles—Sequencing, Travel Advisory Policy, Covid Appropriate Discipline, Extended Covid Appropriate Discipline Protocol to evaluate population susceptibility and aggressive vaccination policy and program.
Also it is utmost important that an expert team well-versed with epidemiology and viruses needs to monitor the situation on a weekly basis and immediate actions should be taken for any corrections. Advisory Committee also mentioned that the development of variants in J&K UT needs to be monitored by sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2, the agent for COVID-19 and around 5% of the positive swabs must be sequenced and sequencing data made available to the expert team on weekly basis.
An aggressive vaccination program in all eligible groups is a strong tool to escape the possibility of a third wave and this should lay focus on vaccine availability, guiding about vaccines to various segments of population and removing their doubts.
The Committee has stressed that Sero-surveys should be done at regular intervals in defined population groups to evaluate susceptibility and degree of herd immunity in the population.
