At a time when India is reeling under the horrific second wave of Covid19, the principal scientific advisor to the Government of India, Dr K Vijay Raghavan on Wednesday cautioned that a 3rd wave of the pandemic is “inevitable”.
“Given the higher levels of circulating virus, the phase three of SARS-C0V-2 is inevitable. However, it is not clear on what time scale this phase three will occur. We should prepare for new waves,” said Dr Raghavan in New Delhi.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
Asserting that the vaccines are effective against the current variants, Dr Raghavan said, “The vaccines also need to be updated.”
Also read: Assam reports 55 more Covid19 deaths, 4,826 new positive cases in last 24 hours
He said the second wave of Covid19 struck India in October last year.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
Meanwhile, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said a double variant of SARS-CoV-2 seems to be the cause for large scale spike in Covid cases.
“The B1.617 lineage of SARS CoV-2 (double variant) has been seen in Maharashtra. The current surge in cases seen over the last 1½ month in some states shows a correlation with the rise in the B1.617 lineage of SARS CoV-2,” said Dr Surjeet Kumar Singh, director in NCDC.
He further informed that the B1.1.7 lineage of SARS CoV-2 (UK variant) is declining in proportion across the country in the last 1½ months.
He informed that no states in the northeast have registered any new variants including the double variant.
Meanwhile, Luv Aggrawal, joint secretary in the health ministry has said that Assam and all other northeastern states remain to be cause of concern following daily increase of Covid19 cases.
Assam has registered 3446 daily new cases as on Wednesday, followed by Manipur 316, Meghalaya 249, Nagaland 182, Tripura 196, Arunachal Pradesh 185, Sikkim 182 and Mizoram 150.