New cases of Kovid-19 in the country are not taking the name of stopping. The daily tally of new cases has crossed 10,000 today. This is the highest number of daily cases of Covid pandemic since August last year. But even after the increase in the cases, this time the condition in the hospitals is not the same as it was seen earlier when the infection increased. Only a few bottles of hand sanitizer are visible in hospitals and only a few health workers are seen wearing masks. In many hospitals, even special wards have not been made for Kovid patients. Although guidelines have been issued to prevent covid infection in many private hospitals, but due to vaccination and the new form of covid virus proving to be weak, the fear of this epidemic has almost ended among the people. Experts are considering this phase of Kovid epidemic as a normal situation. Renowned virologist Jacob John says, ‘Global pandemic was unusual but now pandemic has become normal. The current situation may continue forever. S Narayani, business head at Fortis Hospital, Maharashtra, says that they are now running a 20-bed ward for Covid and a 2-3 bedded Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has also been set up. “We have made separate doors for entry and exit. If needed, we can keep half of the 400 beds in Mulund for Covid patients only. There is nothing to panic at the moment. All necessary instructions have been issued. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi also has no Covid ward and only 5 beds have been earmarked for Covid patients. All these beds are full now. Doctors and AIIMS administration are asking Covid infected patients to arrange beds in the nearby Safdarjung Hospital. Here too a very small number of employees, health workers are seen wearing masks or PPE kits. A doctor at a major private hospital said that the hospital staff have been given all instructions to prevent Covid, including wearing masks. But they will not take care of these things for long. There is laxity everywhere but Delhi’s Max Super Specialty Hospital is completely ready. It has made a separate ward for Kovid infected patients, in which five Kovid patients are currently being treated. OPD staff are not looking that serious but doctors and nurses working in ICU and test lab are seen in masks and complete PPE kits. Doctors say that after facing two-three waves of Kovid, the behavior of the people has also changed a lot. According to doctors, now the number of such people has increased who are taking the symptoms of cough, cold or fever more seriously and are consulting doctors immediately. This time, even after the increase in cases, there is no crowd of patients in the hospitals, but some doctors are worried about the ever-changing forms of the Kovid virus. Ravi Malik, director and paediatrician, Radix Healthcare, Delhi, says, “In previous waves, we were not able to predict the movement of the Covid pandemic correctly. Now is the time to take all precautions. Whether it is a matter of breath or cleanliness of hands, we cannot be negligent. Hospitals say that if the situation worsens, they are ready to deal with any situation. Even in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, daily life has remained unaffected amid rising Covid cases. No patient or staff at Chettinad Super Specialty Hospital in Chennai was wearing a mask or maintaining social distancing. Hundreds of patients were coming here at Kelambakkam Health Center but no one was taking precautions related to Covid. (Ruchika Chitravanshi and Akshara Srivastava and Devarghya Sanyal from New Delhi, Sohini Das and Sachin Mampatta from Mumbai and Shine Jacob from Chennai) !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)}; if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′; n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0); s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’, ‘ fbq(‘init’, ‘550264998751686’); fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);