In an exclusive interview to ANI, the Director of Tata Institute for Genetics and Society in Bangalore, Dr Rakesh Mishra warned that the impact of Coronavirus is down but not nullified and advised all to take precautions to curb the impact of the virus.
“It is important for all to take adequate precautions to curb the impact of the virus. It is observed that if the cases rise in an area, there is a chance that another variant exists,” he said. “We should not be complacent at the moment. The Coronavirus is ‘down but not out’. So, we should exercise all precautions including wearing a mask in public places, avoiding crowded places, etc. Don’t be careless,” he said.
“But need to strengthen environmental surveillance, COVID-19 testing mechanisms and genome sequencing methods. Breaching the 3000 caseload mark today is not really a number to worry about. By strengthening our environmental surveillance, we all can, without testing, know about what is the extent of infection and whether it’s increasing or decreasing,” the TIGS director said.
…”We should do it like seawater surveillance or/and air surveillance. Experts shall carry out testing of the people certainly for those who come to hospitals with symptoms or if there is some suspicion of increasing cases in the area and so on. And along with this, we should also do very extensive genome surveillance so that we know whether a new variant has surfaced or the same variant is increasing the infections,” Dr Mishra said.
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