Are we facing second wave of COVID??????

Are we facing a second wave of COVID as experienced in the other parts of the world???

What are we supposed to do now? Why we have landed up in such a situation of lockdown in Maharashtra and other states also?

The answers to these questions are well known to all or should say taken with FRIVOLOUS ATTITUDE.

Time and again and again, inspite of repeated urges being made by Central Government and State authorities, all of us behaved in very TAKE-IT EASY MODE…“Kuch nahi hota hai“….we are not taking Covid appropriate measures. We started attending public parties, family functions at our pace and without appropriate care about social distancing, no masks and sanitizations.

What is this second wave?

Now it has been more than 12 months since the first cases of the new Coronavirus variant SARS Cov2 have been detected in China. The first wave of the pandemic hit a lot of countries hard and many patients died. Not enough specialized equipment and limited knowledge of the disease added to the severity of this first phase. We all learned from our mistakes made during this first wave of the pandemic and due to that the confidence to be able to manage the second wave a lot better was high.

Nevertheless, much higher infection numbers, more patients in ICUs and in some countries also more deaths were seen during the second wave.

Here we will describe the differences between the first and second wave from a European-German perspective and look at the impact it had on different parts of our lives. In general, some shortcomings were relatively easy to prevent from happening again. Basic equipment such as face masks, FFP2 masks and disinfectant is not an issue anymore. The respective political systems have solved that problem. Some countries also have learned from the first wave that prevention is the only option to reduce patient numbers hitting the hospitals and especially the ICUs.

Due to those facts, most of the European countries now thought they could deal with higher infection numbers. This, however, was an erroneous belief. Theoretical constructs such as a “Lockdown light” have failed to prove successful though it affected our economy hard. Finally, only a hard Lockdown can bring down numbers sufficiently.

In Hospitals, the experience from the first wave helped to treat patients more effectively, leading to an improved infection number/death ratio. However, the political decision to react slow and sometimes only in increments and not with full force led to a huge increase in patient numbers and consecutively soaring numbers of cases needing treatment in hospitals and ICUs. While some countries managed this second wave a lot better than the first, Germany for example did not.

Meanwhile, more than 20,000 deaths compared to less than 10,000 in the entire first wave is a sure indication and it was certainly not caused by the medical performance in Hospitals being poorer the second time around. Financial consequences will remain throughout 2021. The second wave was a hard test for society. Contact restrictions, closed hotels, forbidden fireworks at New Year all that was a challenge in particular for the younger people in the societies. All those restrictions, however, can never be an excuse for people delivering abstruse theories via social media or during demonstrations.

What is the difference between it with the first one?

As said by Dr Randeep Guleria, AIIMS director

1. more infectious.i.e. spreads more faster in society by aerosols,
2. less mortality rate…less deaths.
3. but post covid complications like headache, fatigue, chest and respiratory complaints will more and for longer duration.as

Do ongoing vaccinations are of any benefit to us??

Scientists all over the world deliver reliable information, these are the people to trust – they are the only experts. Some of them also successfully developed what we all hoped for – a vaccine. Although vaccination started some days back, it will take at least until autumn 2021 to have our normal lives back. The benefits as proposed by them are:

1. severity of disease will be less , about roughly estimated as 60-70% protection.
2. complications will be less.
3. antibodies will be formed in body which will help to fight infection.
4. in pandemics, mass immunity develops in shorter time.
5. best for immune compromised persons eg cancer, HIV.
6. for elderly, hypertensive, diabetics,etc ..it will be helpful.

What are the side effects of vaccinations?

1. fever, mild bodyache, pain at the injection site for first 2- 3 days.
2. severe reaction happens in very few cases especially those allergic constitutions should be careful.

Do we get COVID after vaccines?

Yes , you can get covid even after vaccine.

What should we do once got infected?

Once you get fever , slight cold, cough or history of travel or history of exposure to infected person, first get your RT-PCR done.

1. If positive, quarantine yourself for 14 days and start with medications under your family physician.
2. get yourself investigated as per doctors advise. DO RT-PCR of family members also to prevent further spread to society and proper care of them too.
3. start hot water drinking, steam inhalation, masks yourself when in contact with family members when necessary.
4. take rest, proper food, vitamin C and breathing exercises.
5. if respiratory complaints, monitor O2 saturation after 6 min walk test daily once.
6. If hypertensive or diabetic, monitor blood pressure and blood sugar regularly. continue your medications as already prescribed.
7. for anxiety and stress reduction , practise meditation and stress releasing exercises.
8. indulge yourself in hobbies like music, painting.

What is the role of homoeopathy?

Last but not least, homoeopathic medicines can very well deal with mild to moderate symptoms very effectively.Thus minimizing the number of hospitalization as well as complication of post covid symptoms such as headache, fatigue, attention disorder and most important mental stress.