It’s time to get on with our daily lives without worrying about Covid-19 infection too much, say clinicians as India makes wearing masks optional on flights.
Mumbai-based pulmonologist Agam Vora says that we can let go of the masks even in the air-conditioned and closed environments of a flight. “It is not routinely required. I would still recommend it for high-risk individuals like the elderly, those who are obese, diabetic, and for kidney or liver disease patients or the immune-compromised,” Vora says, adding that anybody who has cough and cold must, however, wear a mask.
Doctors say that most people have some form of immunity against the virus already.
Trupti Gilada, infectious disease specialist, Masina Hospital, Mumbai, points out that people have already developed immunity, which is either driven by vaccines, or through infection, or a combination of both. “Most people have antibodies in their blood, and this is true even for children. This is the right time to let go of such rules like wearing masks,” she says.
Gilada points out that Covid-19 is endemic now and it will remain forever, and continue to infect. “The good news is, the current variants in circulation are causing only mild disease. Therefore, one can let the guard down now to an extent. Also, one must remember that there are several other pathogens in the environment for which we do not even have vaccines,” she says.
Some doctors, however, feel that wearing masks helps against pollution-related respiratory illnesses, and should thus be encouraged.
Manoj Goel, director, Pulmonology, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, says, “Covid cases are declining rapidly. More importantly, the number of life-threatening seriously ill patients has reduced significantly. It appears that the pandemic is nearing its end. Life is now back to normal with business as it used to be before the pandemic. Therefore, the mask mandate is being relaxed.”
He adds: “However, masks help in preventing the harmful effects of pollution and risk of other prevalent infections like flu. Therefore, for our own safety, it is better to continue wearing the masks, especially in crowded areas and public places.”
Some clinicians, however, are not in favour of doing away with the mask rule entirely. For example, Rahul Sharma, additional director, Pulmonology, Fortis Hospital, Noida says, “Wearing mask is now optional in flights and there will be no penalty for that. But this doesn’t mean we lower our guard because a single person who has Covid infection can spread it to the entire flight.” He adds, “So, especially those people who have some kind of respiratory issue, fever and/or cough must be informed before boarding the flight to keep their mask on.”
Covid-19 numbers have started to come down, and have remained that way for more than two months now. In fact, the Union health ministry has stopped publishing the daily fresh case count for some time now.
Data from Maharashtra, one of the worst affected and densely populated states, shows that the numbers have been consistently below 200 daily cases for a week now. On November 14, the state reported a low of 67 fresh cases.
Demand for masks and testing kits dip
COVID-19 testing demand has fallen and so have demand for testing kits – both RT PCR and self test. The country’s largest manufacturer of testing kits Mylab said that at an industry level there has been a more than 95 percent dip in demand for kits. The company has started to make IVD test kits using the capacity it had to make COVID-19 test kits. In June they had scaled up capacity to make 1.5 mn rapid antigen test kits per day at Pune.
Similarly mask makers too see dip in demand. A Delhi based mask maker said that their manufacturing lines were lying idle as there was no domestic or export demand as such. “People have largely stopped using masks. We knew this would be a seasonal demand, and would not last forever. But, we didn’t expect a dip so soon,” says the maker who continues to supply surgical masks for its institutional customers.
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