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As India is fighting the second Covid-19 wave with the number of cases rising everyday and the death toll is at all time high, experts have warned that the third wave of Covid is inevitable given the amount of virus circulating in India. The government officials also said that the long COVID wave of such "ferocity" that the country was experiencing currently "was not predicted".
Addressing the Union Health Ministry press conference, he said: "Third phase is inevitable given the amount of virus circulating. But it is difficult to predict the timeline. We should prepare for the new (third) wave." He also said that regular monitoring of the Covid-19 vaccines is needed for upgradation to deal with the new strains.
The Scientific Advisor also pointed out that variants are transmitted the same as the 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 said.
"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.
VijayRaghavan also emphasised that vaccines currently available are effective against existing variants. He said that scientists in India and across the globe are working to anticipate new variants and act against them rapidly by early warning and developing modified tools.
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 more 1.5 lakh active cases.
The government also said that 24 states and UTs show more than 15 per cent COVID positivity rate. From May 1, 6.71 lakh people in the age group of 18-44 years in nine states have been administered the vaccines, it added.
Asked if a nationwide lockdown was the only solution to contain the unprecedented rise in cases, NITI Aayog member and chief of the national expert group on vaccines VK Paul said, "...If anything more is required those options are always being discussed. There's already a guideline to states to impose restrictions to suppress chain of transmission."
Battered by the ferocious second COVID-19, India registered 3,780 fresh COVID-19 fatalities in a single day, taking the death toll to 2,26,188, while 3,82,315 new coronavirus infections were recorded. With the fresh cases, the total tally of COVID-19 cases in the country climbed to 2,06,65,148. Registering a steady increase, the active cases have increased to 34,87,229 comprising 16.87 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 82.03 per cent.