India: Kerala reports 3 deaths and 300 new COVID cases: Is it time to mask up?

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): Three people died of COVID-19 and 300 new cases were reported in Kerala on Wednesday.

In neighbouring Karnataka, the number of cases is anticipated to soon surpass the 100 mark, with the situation becoming increasingly worrisome in the state capital Bengaluru as cases continue to spread rapidly.

Authorities have sent 17 samples from Bengaluru for genome sequencing, and also to confirm the presence of JN.1 variant in the state.

The process of genome sequencing is estimated to take 10 to 15 days, with results expected in five days. IANS sources highlighted that over the last 20 days, Bengaluru has reported 42 positive COVID cases, with three deaths recorded within a week. However, sources confirmed that all individuals had other critical health conditions.

Concerns among the authorities are growing due to the evolving situation, especially with the upcoming Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Holiday season

Karnataka Department of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday said that 20 new positive cases of COVID have been reported in the last 24 hours in the state while two persons died due to the related health issues.

The department said that the number of total active patients stands at 92. “Among these, 72 are isolated at home while 20 persons have been hospitalised. Seven are being treated in the ICU. The positivity rate reported is 2.47 per cent and case fatality rate stands at 10 per cent,” the health officials said.

They said that 808 COVID tests were conducted in the last 24 hours for symptomatic persons among which 407 were RTPCR and 401 RAT tests. The total number of active cases of COVID in the country stood at 2,669, with 358 new cases reported across the country in the past 24 hours, according to the federal Health Ministry.

A total of 358 COVID cases have been reported across the country in the past 24 hours, 300 of them in Kerala. Six people died due to COVID-related complications, including three in Kerala, during this period. The country has 2,669 active cases of COVID, according to the Union Health Ministry.

This spike in infections is driven by a COVID variant named JN.1.

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Mansukh Mandaviya emphasised the importance of being alert and prepared against new and emerging strains of the COVID-19 virus.

“It is important to be alert and prepared against new and emerging strains of the COVID-19 virus,” Mandaviya said.

The federal Health Minister urged all the states to remain alert, increase surveillance and ensure an adequate stock of medicines, oxygen cylinders and concentrators, ventilators and vaccines.

In the wake of the surge in respiratory diseases and the new JN.1 COVID sub-variant, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that the virus is evolving and changing and urged the member states to continue with strong surveillance and sequence sharing. “Despite this, with the onset of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, JN.1 could increase the burden of respiratory infections in many countries,” WHO said in a post on X.

Dr Soumya Swaminathan, former WHO chief scientist, who spoke to NDTV on the latest round of spike in infections in India, cautioned against dismissing COVID as a common cold, not just because of people who fall severely ill, but because of the disease’s long-term effects.

30% of pneumonia cases in Kochi hospitals COVID positive

Asked about 30 per cent of pneumonia cases in Kochi hospitals turning out to be COVID positive and the likelihood of this being replicated in other parts of India, she said, “We’ve been through this many times before, as you know, over the last four years. This is what we expected and this is what the WHO had talked about.”

“We’re seeing a new variant, the JN.1, which is a sub-variant of Omicron. So hopefully it behaves like Omicron, which was relatively mild. But what happens is that every new variant gets some properties of being more transmissible. It is able to evade or avoid the antibody responses that we already have in our system. And therefore it is able to create these waves of infection where it infects people who’ve already been infected before,” she told NDTV.

For people comparing newer variants of Covid with the common cold, Dr Swaminathan had a warning: “It’s very different from the common cold, not just because of people getting severely ill with acute Covid pneumonia, but also because of the long-term effects of Covid.

“And I think we have enough data now from around the world to know that people who have suffered from Covid and, particularly those who have repeat infections, are more likely to get, for example, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, dementia, depression, mental health problems, prolonged fatigue and muscle pain... inability to go back to their usual state of functioning,” she said.

Face masks suggested

Dr Swaminathan added, “So I would say let’s not take it lightly. If you can avoid the infection, much better to avoid it than to get it and risk the after-effects of long Covid.”

Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, Co-Chairman of the National Indian Medical Association Covid Task Force, told NDTV that vaccines may have helped keep COVID at bay since the last wave, but a concern arises when a variant is markedly different.

“For example, JN.1 is not like a one-step ahead variant. This is a multi-step ahead variant. We call it the saltation event in genetics, which basically means a pile of mutations suddenly occurring at one go,” he said.

On masking up, he advised, “I would say if you are trapped in a situation where it’s ventilated, closed, crowded, you feel the air is still and there are people around you, it’s safer to wear a mask. If you are travelling in a vehicle with multiple people who you don’t know, wear a mask or at least roll your windows down.”

Dr Swaminathan said the symptoms of the JN.1 variant are fever, cough, loss of smell and loss of taste. She also pointed to persistent high fever, breathing difficulties, fatigue, inability to eat and a tendency to vomit as the warning signs.

Dr Swaminathan ALSO recommended masking up in a crowded place if people are vulnerable to infections and also stressed that people who are sick should wear a mask to protect others. For the vulnerable population, she recommended using pulse oximeters.

Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said it is “important to be alert and prepared against new and emerging strains of the COVID-19 virus”. He asked all states to remain alert, step up surveillance and ensure adequate stock of medicines, oxygen cylinders and other supplies.