Eminent physician Dr. D. Nageshwar Reddy on Friday hoped that by next year, life will come back to normal and while Covid-19 may remain, it will become like a common cold.

The chairman and Founder of AIG Hospitals said that while doctors see death every day, what they saw during the pandemic was different as in some cases, and entire families were wiped out.

The leading gastroenterologist recalled doctors themselves did not know how to deal with it. “We were frightened. It was like a soldier going to war without weapons. To add to it, WHO predictions were like our weather predictions,” he said.

Dr. Reddy, whose hospital treated 30,000 Covid patients in the last two years, said they found from the experience that mask and social distance were more important than hand hygiene. He called for making public health accessible and economical.

He was speaking at Public Health Innovations Conclave Expo 2021, an exclusive expo on public health which began on Friday.

The expo features innovation, technology and best practices in public health to deal with ‘Life after pandemic’.

Organized by Hitext in association with the Infection Control Academy of India (IFCAI), the expo has 75 stalls.

World Health Organisation (WHO) technical officer Dr. Anuj Sharma said life after the pandemic was still unpredictable.

“Initially, our recommendations went wrong. But WHO doesn’t make any recommendations on its own. We do so based on the recommendations by the experts. When something is new and evolving chances of errors are there,” he said.

Dr. Ranga Reddy Burri, President of Infection Control Academy of India said that every crisis provides significant learning and an opportunity.

He said Covid-19 also provided us with the opportunity to discover new innovative approaches for healthcare delivery to promote accessibility, availability, and affordability of quality care.

Dr. K. Shankar, Director of Preventive Medicine, Government of Telangana, said all government hospitals in Telangana are equipped with oxygen pipelines.

Vaccines will not protect from the virus but protect from death. By 2022 January, we will have a normal life, he said.

Dr. GVS Murthy, Director of the Indian Institute of Public Health revealed that when he was asked to remove mask and speak at the 1st PHIC Conclave last year he was hesitant. “Today, I can remove my mask and speak. That is the change from last year to this year. Public health needs incubation time. Smallpox and Polio took some time to disappear. Covid also needs such time,” he said.