Covid-19 Third Wave ‘Inevitable', Should Prepare For New Waves: Centre

“Phase 3 is inevitable given the amount of circulating virus but timelines are difficult to predict. We should prepare for new waves,” Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal told a media briefing.

Ghaziabad: A COVID-19 patient receives free oxygen provided by a Sikh organization, as coronavirus cases surge in record numbers across the country, at Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Wednesday, May 5, 2021. (PTI Photo)

New Delhi: Amid the unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases in the second wave of the pandemic, the government on Wednesday said phase three is inevitable given the amount of circulating virus and urged the people of the country to prepare for new waves of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Phase 3 is inevitable given the amount of circulating virus but timelines are difficult to predict. We should prepare for new waves,” Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal told a media briefing.

K VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Centre, also said a “phase three is inevitable given the higher levels of circulating virus”.

“But it is not clear on what time scale this phase three will occur. We should prepare for new waves,” he added.

VijayRaghavan said the “variants are transmitted same as original strain”.

“It doesn’t have properties of new kinds of transmission. It infects humans in a manner that makes it more transmissible as it gains entry, makes more copies and goes on, same as original,” he added.

The Principal Scientific Advisor to the Centre said “vaccines are effective against current variants”.

“New variants will arise all over the world and in India too but variants that increase transmission will likely plateau. Immune evasive variants and those which lower or increase disease severity will arise going ahead,” he added.

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VijayRaghavan further said the scientists of India and all over world are working to anticipate these kinds of variants and act against them rapidly by early warning and developing modified tools.

“It’s an intense research program happening in India and abroad,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Joint Secretary informed that 12 states have more than one lakh active cases, seven states have 50,000 to one lakh active cases and 17 states have less than 50,000 active cases.

“Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have around 1.5 lakh active cases,” added Agarwal.

Stating there are some areas of concern, Agarwal said: “Bengaluru reported around 1.49 lakh cases in last one week. Chennai reported 38,000 cases. Some districts have recorded further and speedy Covid cases, these include Kozhikode, Ernakulam, Gurugram.”

The Joint Secretary further said an increase in deaths due to the Covid-19 pandemic has been noticed too.

“Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana reported more death cases,” he added.