Tamil Nadu Health and Family Welfare Principal Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan today said Omicron variant is the reason behind the sudden rise of Covid-19 cases in the State. He said this while speaking at a special media workshop titled ‘Interactive Session with Mediapersons on Omicron Surge, Vaccination of Target Groups, Covid awareness and preparedness’.

The workshop at Health and Family Welfare Training Centre in Egmore, Chennai was organised by the Press Information Bureau of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in association with the Health and Family Welfare Department of the Tamil Nadu Government and UNICEF.

Dr Radhakrishnan said only one per cent of Covid patients of ICU in  hospitals are utilized so for. Besides creating awareness among the public, the State government is proactively taking steps to control the spread of the pandemic, he stated. According to Dr Radhakrishnan, such workshops for mediapersons play a key role in taking the right information to the general public.

"This will make the journalists understand that information during crisis time should not be treated as a commodity. For a pandemic like corona which challenges us to create a change in the public behaviour with the available facts, it is the responsibility of the media, which plays an important role in sensitising the people, to take the facts to them," he said. He requested media to do a fact-check before presenting information to the public.

"Media should take updated information to the public but it should not create distrust in the society. Public health is for and by the people. Without public involvement public health is not possible. the best example for this is Covid. We were able to overcome two waves because of public cooperation only and the same is needed for the third wave too," he said.

In his address, Dr K T S Selvavinayagam, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Government of Tamil Nadu, said new information is arising daily on Covid-19 because of the new findings in the field by the experts. With the new findings it is the responsibility of the government as well as the media to create awareness among the public by presenting the facts properly, he added.

Dr Selvavinayagam appreciated the media for taking the information to the public on timely basis. He requested the media to create awareness on non-communicable diseases as well.

Professor Dr C Ravichandran, Professor of Pediatrics & HOD, Pediatric Hematology & Oncology, ICH, Madras Medical College, said mutation of virus and bacteria are usual phenomena. There should be awareness among the public on the mutation and there is no need to panic. "Likewise, during the pandemic the virus will reach its peak and will reduce gradually and it is same all over the world. In future, Covid will also become like any other virus like influenza," he added.

Dr Ravichandran said during every surge, scientists will do genomic sequencing to find the new variants and will carry out further research on that. In case of the third wave due to Omicron, the surge is very fast in comparison with the first and second wave. This shows Tamil Nadu might see up to 1.5 lakh cases per day soon. The increase in the daily positivity shows that there is a community spread happening. This is happening throughout the country and not only in Tamil Nadu, he stated..

He said in Omicron cases, only 1.6% patients need hospitalisation. However, there is a large number of people who are not coming out for testing fearing they would be taken to hospital. He requested the media to create awareness among these segments, so that the community spread can be arrested.

That vaccination would prevent Covid is completely myth, he said and added vaccine will however reduce the impact of Covid and the hospitalisation is not needed in many vaccinated cases. Tamil Nadu is lagging behind in vaccination, especially only 40% of the people who are above 60 are vaccinated in TN, he said.

Omicron is milder infection but spreads rapidly, so we can't take the current surge lightly, the expert warned.

Dr. Viduthalaivirumbi, Health Officer, from National Health Mission explained about the Covid appropriate behaviours and urged the media to create awareness among the public on the importance of the same.

Dr Darez Ahmed, Mission Director, National Health Mission, explained about the preparedness of the government for the Omicron surge. He also elaborated about the measures taken under the National Health Mission for other non-communicable diseases.

Shri M Annadurai, Additional Director General, PIB Chennai, Shri B Gurubabu, Director, PIB Chennai and Shri J Kamaraj, Director, Regional Outreach Bureau, Chennai were present at the workshop.

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