Why COVID Third Wave in India Will Not be as Severe as First And Second? Here’s What Dr Guleria Has to Say

COVID Third Wave Latest News Today: Even as a number of health experts in the recent past had predicted that the COVID third wave would hit India soon after the festive season, AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria on Tuesday said the third Covid wave of a magnitude similar to the first two is unlikely to hit the country. However, he asserted that the decline in active COVID cases at the moment suggests that vaccines are still protecting against the virus and there is no need for a booster dose for now.

He said this while speaking at the launch of a book Going Viral: Making of Covaxin – The Inside Story which was authored by ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava.

Vaccines playing major role: Guleria further added that the way the vaccines are holding up in terms of preventing severity and hospital admission, chances of any huge wave with large admissions are declining with each passing day.

Guleria stressed that the COVID pandemic will take an endemic form with time and there will be cases but the severity will be highly reduced.

No need of booster dose: Talking about the booster dose, Guleria said there is no surge in cases as such at the moment which suggests that vaccines are still protecting against coronavirus and hence, there is no need for a vaccine booster dose or third dose for now.

On the other side, NITI Aayog member (Health) Dr VK Paul said the decision on a third dose should be based on science. He said the pandemic is not over and it won’t be extinguished in future but might reach an endemic form.

In the meantime, Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, said that India has come a very long way in the fight against COVID-19. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have has been actively involved in COVID-19 RNA extraction, development of testing kits, and vaccine development. Effective collaboration, strong leadership and efficient teamwork made this possible,” he said.

Corona updates: The development comes at a time when India recorded 7,579 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in 543 days, taking the country’s total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,45,26,480, while the active cases were the lowest in 536 days.

As per the updates from the Union Health Ministry, the death toll climbed to 4,66,147 with 236 fresh fatalities. The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 46 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 149 consecutive days now.

(With inputs from PTI)