Amid the second wave of COVID-19 in India, health experts, including AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria, came together on Sunday to address some important issues and advise citizens on how they can stay positive and protect themselves from the deadly disease. 

Addressing the shortage of oxygen supply and COVID drugs across the country, Dr Guleria said that Remdesivir is not a drug that can treat every COVID-19 patient. “Remdesivir not a magic bullet, it’s given to only patients who are hospitalised, have moderate to severe disease and whose oxygen saturation is below 93…Don’t misuse oxygen and Remdesivir.”

He urged people to maintain a healthy diet and perform yoga in order to stay healthy and recover from COVID easily.

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“If we’ve to defeat the disease, we’ll have to save healthcare workers,” Dr Naveet Wig, HoD of Medicine, AIIMS, said during the online discussion. He reiterated that to save the patients, it is important to first save the healthcare workers. “If we save both, only then will we be able to save the economy. It’s linked,” he said.

Wig added that to bring down the number of patients, “our only goal should be to break the chain.” He also said that the positivity rate in India can be bring down to less than 5% in the next 3 weeks if citizens abide by COVID norms.

Dr Sunil Kumar, Director General, Health Services, praised the central government for its handling of the COVID situation. “GoI carried its duty responsibly and ramped up testing capability. We must have faith that our govt takes concrete & scientific steps with suggestions from doctors, microbiologists, epidemiologists,” he said.

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Kumar suggested that people should not focus on news and should pay attention to selected reports.

Suggesting how a person can recover from COVID at their homes, Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman of Medanta, said that people should consult their local doctors as soon as their reports come positive. “All doctors know the protocol and will begin your treatment accordingly. 90% of patients can recover at home if given correct medicines on time,” he said.

The top doctors were live via video conferencing on news agency ANI’s social media platforms.