The World Health Organisation (WHO) has officially announced the end of the COVID-19 global health emergency, citing decreasing trends in COVID-19 deaths, hospitalisations, and intensive care unit admissions, as well as high levels of herd immunity to SARS-CoV-2. While healthcare professionals agree that it’s time to stop fearing COVID-19 infection, they stress that hygiene remains a top priority in the post-COVID era.
Dr Sravani Reddy Karumuru, a consultant general physician and diabetologist at Renova Hospitals, emphasises that doctors have always promoted hygiene and that this announcement is not a goodbye to sanitisers. “The virus has evolved, the variants have weakened, and our immunity has grown stronger. We noticed herd immunity during the second wave of COVID itself, and now we have witnessed several waves, and it is no longer a significant threat to public health. We can be lenient with the usage of masks in public now, but hygiene has always been a priority. Doctors have used masks and sanitisers even before COVID, and that is what we continue to suggest.”
Furthermore, “It has become much like any flu. It can be treated with self-medication. There have been almost no hospitalisations or deaths reported lately. We may see rare cases of severity in vulnerable populations, but we are equipped to treat them. However, monitoring the virus is a must. We are not completely forgetting about it; we are just not prioritising it any longer since it is not endangering public health,” said Dr Sravani Karumuru.
Speaking on vaccines, Dr Kiran Madhala, HOD anaesthesia and critical care at Government Medical College, said, “COVID-19 is now endemic, There is no uniform pattern in the world for the virus. There is also seroprevalence (the level of pathogen in a population) in 90 per cent of the world now. Meanwhile, According to WHO guidelines, only high-risk people after six months require additional booster shots. Variant-specific vaccines would be better, and individuals over 60 with comorbidities, immunocompromised individuals, and pregnant women are considered high risk. Healthcare personnel and older adults (45 to 60) with comorbidities come under semi-high risk and require an additional booster after one year. Children aged 5 to 12 do not need a booster.”
As of May 6, in Telangana, there were 31 new positive cases, 41 recoveries, and no deaths. Currently, there are 264 cases under treatment or isolation, and the majority of active cases are limited to the Hyderabad district. While the COVID-19 pandemic is not endangering public health as it once was, healthcare professionals continue to emphasize the importance of hygiene and monitoring the virus.
