By Gaurav Jain
Delhi & Mumbai on Route to Recovery, Other Cities on Spurt: Says Dr. K K Aggarwal
Amidst the lengthening curve of COVID-19, which doesn’t seem to flatten, home care and telemedicine turn out to be the solutions for its management.
3rd July 2020: Amid the surge in COVID-19 cases in India, a decline in the number of instances in Mumbai followed by Delhi with a fall in mortality rate has been observed. However, the spread chain is not broken, which seems to bring severity in other cities, too, as COVID is all set to stay in India. The COVID conundrum as some people are getting sick and others are not; understanding the relationship between comorbidities and COVID 19; some countries are more affected than others – the reasons behind it; were some of the pressing issues addressed during the HEAL-Thy Samvaad Episode-2 organized on 2nd July 2020.
While addressing the HEAL-Thy Samvaad Episode-2 and deliberating on living with COVID-19, Dr. KK Aggarwal, Padma Shri & Renowned Interventional Cardiologist, conveyed to Prittle Prattle News through a press release that “COVID-19 is not going away soon as India is a densely populated country. Although there is a decline in the number of Mumbai & Delhi cases, other cities may be spurt as we can’t siege it. It may stay for two years or more, but we needn’t fear. So, we need to understand and learn how to live with it. For this, we need to be cautious, wear masks compulsorily, and maintain social distancing; avoid gathering in close spaces as the exposure will be less in open space.”
On the frontlines of this COVID-19 pandemic are healthcare workers with the substantial task of diagnosing and treating an exponentially growing number of acutely ill patients, often having to make critical decisions under physical and psychological pressure. Hence, they (doctors) are at high risk of holding the highest mortality rate due to their repeated exposure to the virus.
Adding to this, Dr. KK Aggarwal conveyed to Prittle Prattle News through a press release that, “Obviously, doctors are at higher risk because of their repeated exposure to the virus, while the absence of isolation rooms India is also one cause. To ease the burden upon the hospitals and to save the doctors, home quarantine is the solution. More than 80% of COVID-19 cases have mild symptoms so that it can be managed at home with telemedicine — this way; we will save the doctors. We can also try this at the community level rather than visiting the hospitals. We can fix a house for COVID-19 and put all positive patients of the community there with masking. Hence, home isolation seems to be the solution. More so, telemedicine and home isolation are the gifts of COVID-19 to the medical fraternity.”
Deliberating on why some people are getting sick and some are not, Dr. JC Suri, Chairman, JCS Institute of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Explained to the reported of Prittle Prattle News that, “Of the people getting infected with COVID-19 and falling sick, 80% are with mild symptoms, 15% with severity to admitted to the hospitals and 5% with extreme conditions to admitted in ICUs. When the virus enters our body, it is dealt with by body resistance. This resistance is of two types — innate immunity and acquired immunity. If one’s innate immunity is strong, one can fight back the virus; if not, it will move towards severity. There are so many factors that impact innate immunity — sleep is one of them, a sound sleep of 7-8hour works as a natural immune booster. If young are falling sick, there is a genetic factor. There are demographic factors also as we have seen the high mortality rate in Spain, Germany, and the USA.”
