3rd Wave Likely To Hit India In Feb: Govt Panel

As per the National COVID19 Supermodel Committee(Govt Panel), the third wave of coronavirus is likely to hit India in February/ early next year. But, the wave is expected to be milder in comparison to the first and second waves.

The head of the panel, Vidyasagar, stated that coronavirus cases in the country are likely to increase once Omicron starts displacing Delta as the dominant variant. “Third wave is likely to arrive early next year in India.

It should be milder than the second wave due to a large-scale immunity present in the country now. There will definitely be a third wave. Right now, we are at around 7,500 cases per day which is sure to go up once Omicron starts displacing Delta as the dominant variant,” he quoted.

He further added that the country could witness not more than two lakh cases daily if the third wave hits the country. “I emphasize that these are projections, not predictions. We can predict once we know how the virus is behaving in the Indian population.

Based on our simulations, in the worst scenario that we have simulated, namely total loss of immunity conferred due to vaccination and maximum loss of naturally induced immunity, the number of cases remains below 1.7 to 1.8 lakh cases per day. This is less than half of the peak during the second wave,” he said.

As we know, on Friday, the Central government advised people to keep new year celebrations as low and simple as possible and avoid dispensable travelling amid a sharp rise in Omicron cases across the country.

So far, India has recorded a total of 101 positive cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus across 11 states and Union territories. Vidyasagar, who is also a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Hyderabad, said that India is unlikely to report more daily cases than the second wave.