Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan on Friday said the state should emerge as a role model in preventing the third wave of coronavirus.

He was speaking in webinar ‘Creating awareness on prevention of third wave of Covid-19 in the state’, organised by the Raj Bhavan and seeing participation of various NGOs, including state representatives of the Indian Red Cross Society, Rotary Club, Bharat Scouts and Guides, UNICEF and others.

“There are several NGOs who have done tremendous work during the first and second wave of Covid-19 and they can play a major role in complete eradication of the virus,” he said, appealing to the NGOs to put their resources to optimum use for urging unvaccinated people to go for inoculation and create awareness on following Covid appropriate behaviour.

According to the Governor, with the lessons learnt from the first and second waves, authorities have been able to ramp up health infrastructure by mobilising ventilators, hospital beds, PPE kits and others, resulting in many lives being saved.

He also noted that rapid vaccination drives organised by the state government have also protected many lives.

Observing that the problems of the first wave were not found in the second wave and the problems of the second may not surface in the third wave, he said that complete vaccination of all eligible categories of people and adhering to Covid-appropriate behaviour such as wearing a mask, maintaining social distance, and regular hand wash can help in prevention of the third wave.

“People should take more precautions while participating in social gatherings, religious gatherings, mixing with crowds etc as the new variants of Covid-19 appear to show higher transmissibility than previous variants and early vaccination can prevent hospitalisation in the next wave,” he added.