Dr Samiran Panda, head of the Department of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said that the third wave of corona virus infection in the country may come by the end of August. However, he also said that the effect of the third wave will be less as compared to the second wave. He said that the third wave of infection will also be seen in the whole country.
Talking to the news channel Dr. Panda said, “There are mainly four things that can be responsible for the third wave. If the immunity acquired during the first, first and second wave, if it is less, then the third wave can come. Second, any variant that can bypass the immunity already acquired. Third, the new variant may not be able to bypass immunity, but can spread rapidly among people. And fourth, if the restrictions are lifted prematurely by the states, a new wave of infections may be seen.”
Could the Delta Plus variant be responsible for the third wave? In response to this question, he said that Delta (B.1.617.2) and Delta Plus (AY.1), both variants have spread in the country. “This kind of health crisis cannot happen anymore because of the delta variant,” he said.
Recently, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had said that the arrival of a third wave in the country is “certain” and it may arrive soon. On Monday, the IMA appealed to the state governments not to relax the restrictions to prevent the spread of the epidemic. IMA said that we should not forget the third wave of the epidemic.
