Third Wave of Corona to Hit Maharashtra in December? Health Minister Rajesh Tope Issues Stern Warning | Read Here

 

Third Wave of Corona in Maharashtra Latest News today: Third wave of covid is waiting and is expected to hit next month, said Rajesh Tope.

Third Wave of Corona in Maharashtra: Contrary to the experts, Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope asserted that the third wave of Covid-19 will hit the state in December, however, it will be mild in nature if the vaccination continues at the same pace. “Third wave of covid is waiting and is expected to hit next month due to which Maharashtra has recommended vaccination for children aged 12-18”, Tope told News 18, quoting experts.

Meanwhile, several medical practitioners in Maharashtra have suggested that a booster dose of the vaccine against the deadly virus for healthcare and frontline workers. “The count of antibodies in people, who have completed their vaccination some six to eight months ago, is declining”, Dr Gautam Bhansali, consultant physician of Bombay Hospital said. 

On the other hand, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Randeep Guleria said the decline in active COVID cases suggests that the chances of the third wave are waning with every passing day. “It is very unlikely that we will see a huge third wave, but the disease will become endemic and the country will continue to record cases”, Guleria told The Indian Express while speaking at the book launch Going Viral: Making of Covaxin – The Inside Story, penned by ICMR Director-General Dr. Balram Bhargava

On being asked about booster doses of vaccine, Guleria said that they are not needed in India, instead focus should be on increasing vaccine coverage.

WORST OF THE COVID CRISIS OVER?

Agreeing with Guleria, several other experts said that the impact of the third wave will be milder than what India experienced in the second wave when scores of people died and various were hospitalised. “A stepped-up vaccination campaign has meant that more people are protected against severe disease, hospitalisation, and death”, said Gautam Menon, professor, Departments of Physics and Biology, Ashoka University in Sonepat.

Echoing similar remarks, virologist Anurag Agrawal said that the low number of cases can be attributed to a high fraction of the population being infected by the Delta variant during the second wave, followed by most adults having received at least one vaccine dose further boosting the immune response. “Serosurveys have shown that the majority of the population is likely to have been infected”, Agrawal, director of the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi, told the news agency.

COVID-19 SITUATION IN INDIA

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. Earlier on Tuesday, India logged 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.

COVID-19 CASES IN MAHARASHTRA

On Tuesday, Maharashtra recorded 766 new COVID-19 infections and 19 fresh fatalities in the last 24 hours even as the active cases in the state remained below 10,000 for the third consecutive day.

With the addition of new infections and fatalities, the statewide caseload increased to 66,31,297 and the toll to 1,40,766. The state had reported eight fresh fatalities and 656 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, the lowest one-day figures since April 2020.