Curbs a must, but no need for panic: Top AIIMS doctor

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 25

Naveet Wig, head of the Department of Medicine at AIIMS-Delhi, said on Sunday that movement curbs were needed where Covid-19 positivity rate was over 5 per cent.

However, he said there was no cause for panic and people must stop running after Remdesivir injection that was useful only for hospitalised patients in case of low oxygen saturation. Steroids were good enough in other cases, he added.

85% will recover in home isolation: Guleria

AIIMS chief Dr Randeep Guleria said on Sunday that 85 to 90% people would recover from Covid by isolating at home. Oxygen was needed only when saturation fell below 94%, he added.

“We have to break the chain of transmission and we need severe restrictions to reduce the positivity rate. In Delhi, the positivity rate has gone up from 1 per cent on April 1 to over 30 per cent today. Mumbai had 26 per cent positivity rate at one point in time, but with severe restrictions it has come down to 14 per cent,” Wig said.

Wig said India could reduce the positivity rate to less than 5 per cent in three weeks, if people practised Covid-appropriate behaviour and accepted vaccines quickly.

“Everyone must take the vaccine dose as soon as possible. The vaccines are absolutely safe and there is no reason to have any doubt whatsoever. Nothing will happen to anyone. All you need to do is keep yourself hydrated well. The most anyone will have is fever, which is normal,” Wig said.

He urged the media to show “only the positive news and build people’s confidence that the chain of transmission can be broken by practising Covid protocol and taking vaccine shots”.