The government of India Wednesday warned that a third phase of the coronavirus pandemic is inevitable though it is not clear on what time scale this phase would occur.
“Phase 3 (third wave) is inevitable, given the high levels at which this virus is circulating. But it is not clear at what time scale this Phase 3 will occur. Hopefully, incrementally, but we should prepare for new waves. Ongoing surveillance is needed as are vaccine upgrades,” principal Scientific Advisor to the Centre, Dr K Vijay Raghavan said at a government briefing on the current COVID-10 situation and the vaccination programme.
The government official warned that the Covid-19 vaccines will need to be “updated” to deal with the new strains that have sped up the contagion in the country, overwhelming hospitals and killing thousands of people.
On variants of the coronavirus, he said, “Variants are transmitted same as original strain. It doesn’t 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 original.”
