HYDERABAD: Several fake and misleading pieces of information regarding Covid-19 pandemic have been making their way to people’s social media handles for over a week now.
The messages started after an alert was issued in the country following a rise in Covid cases in China, South Korea, Japan, Brazil and the United States. In contrast, experts and doctors have also been calling out such messages and spreading awareness. Such messages had been rampant even during the first three waves of the pandemic, and were about multiple aspects such as potency of variants, imposition of lockdowns or travel restrictions.
For example, one such viral message that was circulated is that the XBB variant of Covid-19 is five times more virulent than the Delta variant (which drove the surge during the second wave) as it is more deadly and not easy to detect compared to the earlier variants. Following the message, the Union government issued a clarification.
INSACOG, a network of 54 laboratories monitoring genomic variations in SARS-CoV-2, had stated in October that the XBB variant was similar to Omicron’s other sub-lineages and was mild in severity.
Paediatrician Dr. Sivaranjani Santosh said that though the sub-variant was prevalent in India from October, false messages about it were causing panic.
Similarly, she said, messages were also being circulated about the BF.7 variant, which drove the spike in cases in China.
“BF.7 is creating problems in China but it is not necessary that it will create the same problem in India. Why create panic? Let us continue taking basic precautions,” she said.
Another falsehood that many have believed is that a lockdown was imminent. As of now, neither the Centre nor the state government has issued any information on the same. In fact, earlier, lockdowns were imposed when the number of cases reached very high numbers. For the past few months, Telangana has been reporting only a handful of cases, which indicates that a lockdown will not be imposed in the near future. On Saturday too, the state reported only 13 cases.
There are also uncertainties with regard to travel restrictions. As of now, the Centre has not imposed any restrictions, but has only decided to randomly test two per cent of total passengers in flights upon their arrival at airports.
