On Monday morning, Andhra Pradesh recorded about 14 COVID-19 cases and the active cases stand at 314, with no deaths being recorded.
This is one of the lowest caseload that the State has recorded since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. The State has been recording a steady downward trend since the last couple of months and so is the scenario at the national-level.
Though the experts from the medical field agree that there is steady decline both in the number of cases and in the severity, they say that it is too early to say that COVID is on its way out.
“There is a drop in cases and the good news is that the severity of the cases, even among the people with co-morbidity, is low. If this continues for some more time, then we can say that it is entering the endemic phase from the pandemic stage,” said P.V. Sudhakar, Principal, Government Medical College (RIMS), Ongole.
“But that does not mean that the COVID appropriate behaviour should be thrown to the wind. We have to be extremely careful during this phase to see that the virus does not mutate. The longer the virus stays, there is a possibility for mutation. So both the people and the district administration should take care to see that the infection does not spread to a large number of people,” he said.
Speaking to The Hindu on Monday, Director of Visakha Institute of Medical Science (VIMS) K. Rambabu said that people are getting infected and taking treatment without getting tested.
‘Stop mutation’
“Getting the test done is important to see that the infection does not spread to a larger audience. Nowadays, the isolation period has come down to one week. So the moment, one notices the symptoms, he or she should get tested and if the result is positive, the best would be to isolate oneself. This is how we can control the spread, stop the mutation and finally see that the virus becomes an endemic, just like malaria or viral flu,” he said.
He also advised that all persons, especially the ones with co-morbidities, should take all the three vaccines, including the booster dose.
Both the experts say that the cause of worry is now the long COVID symptoms.
“This is something that we now need to worry about, as the cases of long COVID ailments are now increasing rapidly and they are seen even among the young people,” they said.
“It is surprising to see that young persons in their early thirties being diagnosed with Avascular necrosis (AVN) and also known as osteonecrosis, It is a condition where bone tissue dies due to lack of blood supply,” said Dr. Rambabu.
“There are cases, where young persons had to undergo hip replacement. And in most of the cases, they were victims of COVID and were subjected to prolonged use of drugs that contained steroids,” he said.
“In the cases of long COVID, it is seen that the lungs, bones and heart are affected and there are cases where young persons have had heart attacks,” said Dr. Rambabu.
