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Covid-19: People failed to learn from experience

The Covid pandemic has a parallel with Spanish flu of 1918, as people during that time and now in 2021, did not learn anything from their past experience.

By Telangana Today

Published Date - 17 April 2021, 11:58 PM

Covid-19: People failed to learn from experience — Police taking pictures of ‘Mask On’ rule violators in Jubilee Hills on Saturday. — Photo: Surya Sridhar

Hyderabad: The situation of Covid-19 pandemic in Telangana is critical and reflects the inability of the public to learn from past mistakes and history. The Covid pandemic has a parallel with Spanish flu of 1918, as people during that time and now in 2021, did not learn anything from their past experience.

“During the first Covid wave, we managed to control infections through lockdowns but in the second wave, carelessness and virus mutations have made it difficult to contain the spread of the virus,” senior health officials on Saturday said.

“There are ample instances in our history from where we can draw lessons. It is always the second wave of a pandemic, which is far more deadly than the first one. Take the example of Spanish Flu of 1918. The first wave of Spanish flu began in March and claimed at least 30 to 50 lakh lives. However, people those days failed to learn or understand from the first wave, as the second wave hit them hard in the later half of that year. Anywhere between 2 crore to 7 crore people died in the second wave,” lamented Director of Public Health (DPH) Dr G Srinivasa Rao.

Superspreader event at Maha-TS border

Here is an instance of a superspreader event and how fast spreading, the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 is in Telangana.

On March 24, about 20 people from Maharashtra came to nearby district in Telangana, to attend a local festival. They interacted and celebrated with about 30 locals from Telangana and later returned.

On April 4, following development of symptoms, five people from the district here got tested for Covid at a local PHC and all of them tested positive. The district surveillance team jumped into action and by April 6, i.e. within 12 days, the small festival led to 433 Covid positive cases. According to DPH, there were numerous such superspreader events across that have fuelled the ongoing surge in infections.

Positivity rate

Within a short period of just a fortnight, Telangana witnessed a significant increase in the positivity rate of Covid infections. On April 1, the positivity rate, which is the percentage of people who test positive for the SARS-CoV-2 out of the overall number of persons tested, was 1.63 per cent. By April 15, the positivity rate literally doubled to 2.98 or 3 per cent. Senior health officials point out that high positivity rate implies the severity of the ongoing second wave of Covid pandemic.

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