‘Masks Must Be Made Mandatory in Public Places’: Covid Task Force Member Suneela Garg on Rising Positivity Rate, Cases in India

Over the past few one week, India has been reporting a steep rise in Covid cases, which prompted some states to bring back mask mandates while some had to conduct drills to be ready for any exigency.

CNN-News18 spoke to Delhi Covid Task Force member and Lancet Commission member Dr Suneela Garg on the present 12% positivity rate in Delhi and the fact that Covid cases are rising across the country.

Explaining the issue, Garg said: “XBB 1.15 & XBB 1.16 are sub variants of Omicron. They are highly transmissible but not severe. This sub variant infection, however, has rare chances of hospitalisation. In some cases, one affected with the variant get well in 3 to four days.

The task force member also stressed on the use of masks Masks. “Using of Mask is advisable at the moment but I feel in crowded places, it should be made mandatory.”

She also mentioned that children below 12 years of age don’t need vaccine at the moment. “We have enough international and national data to support this. The vulnerable age group comprising elderly and people with comorbidity get affected the most.

Dr Garg also added that precaution should be increased. “Only 27% population have taken the precautionary dose. More people should get inoculated with precaution dose as our vaccine immunity and natural immunity are slowly waning.”

India Cases

India logged 3,038 new coronavirus cases, while the active cases increased to 21,179, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

The death toll climbed to 5,30,901 with nine deaths. While two deaths each were reported from Delhi and Punjab, one each was reported by Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand in a span of 24 hours and two reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The Covid case tally was recorded at 4.47 crore (4,47,29,284) The active cases now comprise 0.05 per cent of the total infections and the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.76 per cent, the ministry said.

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