Covid: Is Third Wave Inevitable In India?

Many shopping markets in the country, including Hyderabad’s Charminar and Abids, are witnessing huge crowds with zero compliance with COVID-19 protocols ahead of the Diwali festival. As we observe, 80 per cent of people are seen not wearing masks or maintaining social distance and 50 per cent wearing masks to their chins.

The unlocking of cities has helped many markets to have an active business but it has also brought back the fear of the spread of the coronavirus since none of the rules are being followed. The markets are in chaos. Back to back festivals are attracting massive crowds and people got back to normalcy.

On the other hand, a survey conducted by the LocalCircles revealed that only 2% of Indians believe that masking is effective while only 3% believe that actual covid norms are being followed. Sachin Taparia, founder of LocalCircles said, “The drop in masking compliance ratings from 29 per cent to 2 per cent and in social distancing compliance ratings from 11 per cent to 3 per cent indicates that the vast majority of Indians believe that masking and social distancing compliance are practically non-existent in most of the country.”

Meanwhile, adding to the dismissive behaviour of the public, even a drop in vaccination count is more cause of concern. Recently, many districts across the country have recorded a low coverage of the COVID-19 vaccination. The possibility can not be denied and one should take note of the surge of cases abruptly gone up in Kerala and Maharashtra, and those states may become epicenters for the third wave in the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled a meeting on November 3 with district magistrates of over 40 districts having low COVID-19 vaccination coverage. The government has made arrangements for 8.36 lakh hospital beds apart from one million isolation beds in dedicated care centres, 4.86 oxygen-supported beds and 1.35 lakh ICU beds.