After four deaths due to JN.1 Covid variant reported in Kerala and Karnataka, the Central government has warned people to “mask up”, and asked states to make adequate health arrangements.
A survey was conducted by LocalCircles on the Covid variant, in which, many respondents have expressed concerns whether with low testing rate, India has the risk of being late in identifying and reporting the JN.1 variant, especially, if there is risk of severe conditions in some individuals.
When respondents were asked if they undertook a Covid test this year after their immediate family members had symptoms such as cold, fever, fatigue or respiratory issues, 76% admitted that they or immediate family members “did not take any Covid test despite symptoms; 12% stated they took a RT-PCR test; 6% shared that they took a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT), and 6% had no clear response. Therefore, only 1 in 9 people taking RT-PCR test despite having Covid symptoms.
The respondents were then asked the reasons behind the reluctance in getting a Covid test done despite having similar symptoms. All 12,137 responses stated they “didn’t see any point in testing, we just took treatment based on symptoms and recovered”. Some of the respondents pointed out that it was “convenient” for not undergoing a Covid test.
With Singapore reporting more than 50,000 JN.1 cases, the risk in India becomes high if the new variant causes severe disease in some individuals especially senior citizens or those with comorbidities. If that is observed, the government should consider testing all arriving passengers from countries with high caseloads as well as providing free Covid testing at multiple locations in every district.
The survey received over 24,000 responses from citizens located in 303 districts of India. Some 67% respondents were men while 33% were women. Nearly 41% respondents were from tier 1, 35% from tier 2 and 24% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.
Comments
0 comment