On March 8, 2020, when news of the first COVID-19 case hit Karnataka, no one could have imagined that the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus would bring in a “new normal”. Now, exactly a year on, our very vocabulary has been altered, with terms such as “pandemic”, “social distancing”, “masking”, and “lockdown” becoming everyday words. “Investments in public health with evidence-based approach are the need of the hour,” he added. Sudharshan, who asserted that Karnataka had performed fairly well when compared to other States, said testing, contact tracing, and screening of international travellers were the State’s strengths. With the virus mutating, genomic surveillance should continue since it is a very important tool to detect variants, he added.

Source: The Hindu March 07, 2021 16:49 UTC