WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan has said that there is no science behind night curfew when it comes to tackling the spread of Covid.
Swaminathan said that countries like India should formulate science-based policies to contain the spread of the virus.
“Things like night curfew, there is no science behind it. Evidence-based measures have to be taken. There is a complete list of public health measures,” she pointed out.
“Entertainment venues are the places where these viruses spread the most. It is natural to impose some restrictions there,” Swaminathan said.
She said that Indians need to be prepared, not to panic.
“We can expect to see an increase in omicron cases in India, I think it is just starting in some cities and going to infect a lot of people,” the WHO scientist said.
With 309 new cases of the highly transmissible Covid variant Omicron being detected in the last 24 hours, India’s Omicron tally rose to 1,270 on Friday. Out of the total, 374 have been discharged.
Of the 23 states and union territories that have reported omicron infection so far, Maharashtra tops the list with 450 such cases. Of these, 125 patients have been discharged according to the health ministry data.
Delhi has the second-highest number of 320 cases of Omicron infection. However, 57 of them have been discharged from the hospital.
In a separate tweet on Friday, Swaminathan said: “Hospitalisations are also on the rise, mostly among unvaccinated people. Although #Omicron may cause less severe disease, a small percentage of a large number are still very large and can affect health systems.
“Whatever #covidvariant, #Omicron or #delta – vaccination prevents hospitalization and death,” she said.