‘Third Covid-19 wave is inevitable’

Principal Scientific Adviser to the Centre K VijayRaghavan on Wednesday said the ldquothird phaserdquo of the Covid19 is inevitableVijayRaghavan during a media briefing said ldquoVariants are transmitted same as original strain It does not have the properties of new kinds of transmission It infects humans in a manner that makes it more transmissible as it gains entry makes more copies and goes on same as the originalrdquoA man breathes with the help of oxygen support at a Gurdwara in Ghaziabad on Tuesday PicAFPldquoA phase three is inevitable given the higher levels of circulating virus but it is not clear on what time scale this phase three will occur We should prepare for new waves Ongoing surveillance is needed as are vaccine upgradesrdquo he saidldquoPrevious infection and vaccine will cause an adaptive treasure on the virus a new kind of changes that will escape Therefore we should be prepared scientifically to take care of thatrdquo he saidlsquoNew variants will arisersquoVijayRaghavan further said ldquoVaccines are effective against current variants New variants will arise all over the world and in India too but variants that increase transmission will likely plateau Immune evasive variants and those which lower or increase disease severity will arise going aheadrdquoldquoScientists of India and all over the world are working to anticipate these kinds of variants and act against them rapidly by early warning and developing modified tools It is an intense research program happening in India and abroadrdquo he addedDuring the media briefing Joint Secretary of Union Health Ministry Lav Agarwal informed that 12 states have more than 1 lakh active cases 7 states have 50000 to 1 lakh active cases and 17 states have fewer than 50000 active casesldquoMaharashtra Kerala Karnataka Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have around 15 lakh active casesrdquo Agarwal saidldquoThere are some areas of concern Bengaluru reported around 149 lakh cases in the last one week Chennai reported 38000 cases Some districts have recorded further and speedy cases which include Kozhikode Ernakulam Gurugramrdquo the Joint Secretary saidHe said that around 24 per cent dayonday growth in Covid19 cases has been noticed ldquoAn increase in deaths has been noticed too Maharashtra Karnataka Andhra Pradesh Delhi and Haryana reported more death casesrdquo he addedDeaths could double by JuneA record 3780 fresh COVID19 fatalities were registered in a single day in India while 382315 new infections were recorded according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday morning The active cases have increased to 3487229A team at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru has cautioned that the death toll could nearly double by June if the current upward trends keep up according to a report in Bloomberg Using a mathematical model the team has predicted about 404000 COVID19 casualties by June 11Whereas a model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington has predicted 1018879 deaths by the end of JulyKerala seeks 75 lakh COVID vaccines dosesKerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday requested the Centre to provide at least 1000 tonnes of imported LMO and 50 lakh doses of Covishield and 25 lakh doses of Covaxin to the state in view of the surge in COVID19 cases He also sought Pressure Swing Absorption plants oxygen concentrators and ventilators on a priority basis considering the fact that Kerala has one of the highest active caseloads in IndiaN440K variant lsquofadingrsquo retd HC judge to probe 24 Krsquotaka deathsgtgt The N440K variant of Coronavirus which wreaked havoc during the first wave in the country is diminishing and likely to disappear soon scientists at CSIRCentre for Cellular and Molecular Biology CCMB said Dismissing media reports that N440K is causing chaos in Andhra Pradesh CCMB scientist Divya Tej Sowpati said the current data show it is replaced by new variants such as B1617 and B117gtgt The Karnataka government on Wednesday appointed retired high court judge Justice B A Patil as the oneman commission to inquire into the death of 24 COVID patients in Chamarajanagar district allegedly owing to oxygen shortage on May 3 The office of the commission has to submit its report in one monthgtgt The Uttar Pradesh government has announced that journalists and their families will be given priority in vaccination against COVID19 Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday issued instructions to allot separate vaccination centres for journalists and their family members who are above 18 years of age a statement stated20665148Total no of coronavirus cases in India so far226188Total no of deaths due to the virus in India so far16951731Total no of patients Recovered and discharged in India so farThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever