Thursday, 06 May 2021 | Archana Jyoti | New Delhi
But Govt not sure about its arrival time and severity
It’s not about Alvin Toffler’s futuristic classic “Third Wave”, but the Government’s fear of the return of the Covid scourge after the ongoing second wave finally subsides.
If coronavirus continue to evolve further, India will not be spared from a third wave of the pandemic which has presently swept nations like Canada, France and Italy, the Government on Wednesday said, flagging a frightening future at a time when India is already reeling under the second wave of Covid-19.
However, the Government has no clue when it will happen. “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,” Principal Scientific Advisor to the Centre K Vijay Raghavan said while asserting that “vaccines are effective against current variants”.
Talking to reporters at a Press conference here, he said the country has to be prepared for the new variants that will also arise all over the world but variants that increase the transmission will likely to plateau. His comments come amidst WHO observation in a report that India accounted for 46 per cent of global cases and a quarter of global deaths reported in the past week.
The Government has virtually rejected suggestion for a nationwide lockdown to reign in the Covid-19 pandemic, but it could learn from the experience of those countries effectively dealing with the third wave.
For instance, Germany after reopening schools in late February and allowing hairdressers and some shops to resume business in March, extended its partial lockdown which ended on April 18 as the country faced a record surge in cases with most of those being infected were in the 15 to 49 age group, much younger than those in the first two waves.
Similarly, hit by the third wave, France went for a third national lockdown in early April to check the Covid surge that threatened to overwhelm the country’s hospitals. All schools and non-essential shops were shut till the end of April and a curfew imposed from 7 pm to 6 am.
Ditto with Italy which, according to the World Health Organisation, has recorded 3,809,193 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 115,557 deaths between January 3, 2020, and April 15, 2021 in course of the third wave.
Poland and Canada are among a few other countries that have imposed the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown to deal with the third wave.
On variants of the coronavirus, Vijayraghvan said, “Variants are transmitted the same as the original strain. It doesn’t have the 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 the original.”
However, he did not rule out the need to update the Covid-19 vaccine to deal with the new strain that has spiked the infection in the country.
In the second wave, the country is witnessing around 2.4 per cent day-on-day growth in infection with over 3.82 lakh new cases reported in a day. On Tuesday, India reported a record 3,780 deaths, the highest daily toll since the pandemic began, pushing total fatalities to 2,26,188.
Member, NITI Ayog, Dr VK Paul was of the opinion that the response to the changing virus remains the same. “We need to follow the Covid- appropriate behaviour such as mask, distancing, hygiene, no unnecessary meetings and staying at home,” Dr Paul said.
Some States, including Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Rajasthan, and Bihar, are showing an increasing trend in daily Covid-19 cases. “There are some areas of concern,” Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary of the Union Health Ministry said.
Bengaluru reported around 1.49 lakh cases in the last week. Chennai reported around 38,000 Covid-19 cases. Some districts have recorded further and speedy cases, including Kozhikode, Ernakulam, Gurgram, he added.
An increase in deaths has been noticed too, the health official said, adding Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, and Haryana reported more death cases.
