Dr Randeep Guleria also the surge could be because of a new variant of Covid.
New Delhi:
Dr Randeep Guleria, chief of Delhi’s All-India Institute of Medical Sciences and a principal member of the Centre’s Covid task force, today made a compelling case for “reaching out” to the people for vaccination. The angle was touched upon by Maharashtra officials with their call for door-to-door vaccination, but it was negated by the government on Tuesday.
Speaking of possible ways to contain the fresh surge, Dr Guleria told NDTV, “We need to develop a strategy where we can reach out to people and give them the vaccination”.
But this should be done “in a way that we are confident that we can take care of any adverse effect which happens,” he added, pointing to the one big reason why the Union health ministry had sidestepped the idea.
Earlier this week, officials in Maharashtra said they had flagged door-to-door vaccination, as the state witnesses a never-before surge with a high rate of infection and a marginally high mortality rate. Mumbai civic body Brihanmumbai Corporation’s commissioner Iqbal Chahal had told NDTV that he had pitched it to the Centre during one of the online meetings.
Though the Union health secretary said there has been no formal request from anyone, he added that doing this will not be possible at the moment since “There may be adverse events following vaccination, for which you need to keep a person under watch for 30 minutes”.
Dr Guleria has attributed part of the surge to a new variant of the virus.
While the Centre has said there is no evidence tying the surge to a mutation, the AIIMS chief said, “The fact that data is not there does not mean it is not happening”.
“It is likely logically that if there is a sudden surge in cases, there is something which is happening which is making the virus more infectious,” he added.
But he also pointed to the laxity that has crept in when it comes to Covid-appropriate behaviour.
“It is also that we are allowing that to happen. We are allowing it to spread to our own community because in January and February, when the vaccine rollout started, people said, ‘Now Covid is over in our country’,” he added.