India may witness peak of COVID-19 cases in September: Health expert

COVID-19 cases may peak in India as early as the first week of September, said Dr Giridhar Gyani, director-general of Association of Health Care Providers- India.

New Delhi: Peak of Covid-19 cases in India will take place in the first week of September, said Dr Giridhar Gyani, a renowned health expert and director-general of Association of Health Care Providers-India to ETV Bharat on Friday.

Even the country has been witnessing a spike of more than 65,000 COVID cases for the last few days, Dr Gyani said that people across the country have understood to 'live with the deadly virus'.

The health expert further asserted that the central government must take extra steps to break the chain of the virus from spreading in the densely populated states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

“Almost 65,000 new cases along with 800-900 deaths have been reported almost every day. As per the report submitted to the government, India may see COVID-19 cases peaking in the first week of September,” said Dr Gyani, who is also a member of the Government task force on hospitals.

In the last 24 hours, India registered a spike of 68,898 positive COVID-19 cases and a casualty of 983 people. With a total of 29,05,824 COVID-19 cases, India comes second after US and Brazil as far as the highest number of coronavirus cases and fatality are concerned. India till date registered 54,849 deaths.

“We have considered achieving peaks already in states like Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai. From here the cases are going down. Our main concern is for those states which had earlier registered fewer cases, but now witnessing a sudden spike,” Dr Gyani said.

Cases in states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Chattisgarh are increasing. These are the states where peaks may come later than the first week of September. Infrastructure is limited in these states. “If we succeed in these states, I believe by year-end, we will win over Coronavirus,” said Dr Gyani.

Active Covid cases in Madhya Pradesh is 10,782 with a spike of 65 cases in the last 24 hours, 27,696 active cases in West Bengal, 48,511 active cases in Uttar Pradesh, 6,594 active cases in Chhattisgarh and Bihar has 26,789 active cases as per health ministry statistics.

Referring to the serosurvey report of Delhi, Dr Gyani said that more than 30 per cent of people got immunity, which means they were either infected or asymptomatically infected.

“If that portion of people got immunity, we are going closer to herd immunity. Reports indicate that a large number of people already got immune and some are getting immune for six months from now. So, by and large, people have understood the spread of the virus, our medical technology has been developed,” he said.

He further added that after the central government intervened in Delhi, India got very good results.

“Central governments have also a good number of resources in terms of experts, manpower and I think if the government can depute some people from Delhi to places like Bihar, and even UP, this will greatly help,” he said.

He said that if the central government can provide more drugs, pharmacies and ventilators in these states, “they can give a strong fight against Covid whenever there is any peak.”