At a glimpse: India

Due to the signicant decline in Coronavirus cases in India, the Ministry of Home Affairs has abolished all existing COVID restrictions from March 31st except for wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing. Nevertheless, it is also stated that the Disaster Management Act will no longer be invoked
for COVID safety measures. Surprisingly, a few states have also declared that masks are not mandatory for the general public.

We as dentists are expecting both, the positive and negative impacts of this decision on dentistry. The good thing about this is that after the relaxation in the COVID norms there will be a free ow of the patients who no longer will be hesitant to approach the dentist for their dental issues in contrast to the
COVID times when they were too afraid to approach the dentist. Eventually, this will motivate the demotivated dentists and regain their condence in dentistry.

On the other hand, the threat of COVID-19 has not ended completely. Its novel variant is still prevalent in our neighbouring country China. If all of a sudden a new COVID-19 wave emerges then it will be very difcult to tackle the situation due to the already discontinued COVID regulations. The end resort could be imposing a nation-wide lockdown which is the last thing that a dentist wants. It might hit us even harder. So, overall the decision of abolishing COVID norms has brought a lot of uncertainties in the eld of dentistry. But, on a positive note, we are looking forward to live in a COVID free world.

Statement see EDI Journal 1/2022