Bengal on Wednesday recorded zero Covid-19 death after exactly a year. The last time the state had witnessed no Covid death was on March 1, 2021, just before the onset of the devastating second wave.
Daily Covid deaths had trickled down to single digits for the past eight days and health experts hoped this was the beginning of the end of the pandemic unless a new virulent variant emerged.
The third wave in Bengal saw the highest daily death count: 39, on January 15. Even as cases started dropping sharply after the peak of 24,287 on January 9, daily deaths continued to hover around the 30-mark till February 8. The count dropped to single digits only about eight days ago. "We hope this is the beginning of the end but are not certain because of possible new variants. We should take this window as an opportunity to vaccinate children as soon as possible," said Dipdentra Sarkar, professor of surgery, IPGMER.
Senior physician Sukumar Mukherjee, who is also a member of Bengal's Global Advisory Board for Covid-19, said the country should strategise to inoculate unvaccinated children and continue genome-sequencing of positive samples.
"It is good that we have started recording zero Covid death. We are at a very good position so far as controlling the infection is concerned. During this lull, we must also conduct sero surveys and genomic-sequencing so that we are not caught unaware by any new variant. And people should go an practising Covid-appropriate behaviour," said Mukherjee.
The Covid-19 virus has so far claimed 21,178 lives in Bengal across the three waves of the pandemic. Despite the monstrous surge in cases during the third wave, when the state recorded over 20,000 cases on several days in mid-January, deaths never crossed the two-digit mark, unlike in the second wave, when daily deaths stayed in three digits for several days. According to doctors, good vaccination coverage was one of the reasons for low mortality in the third wave.
"We failed in the first wave and faltered in the second wave. But we were much better as far as tackling the third wave was concerned. That is why vaccinating children is important in case of a fourth wave by a new variant," added Dipdentra Sarkar. A mathematical model by IIT Kanpur has talked about a likely fourth wave by the third week of June. Even as a good percentage of adults and adolescents between 15 and 17 years have received two doses, vaccination of children below this age is yet to be rolled out.
