As the virus mutates further, a third wave of COVID infection is inevitable and it is necessary to be prepared for new waves, the government's Principal Scientific Advisor K Vijay Raghavan cautioned on Wednesday.
With active cases climbing to 34.87 lakh in India, the top scientific officer said it was not expected that the second wave would hit the country with such ferocity.
"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 be prepared for new waves," he said.
Raghvan said although vaccines are efficacious against new mutations like the United Kingdom one and the double mutant, surveillance and vaccine updates are needed as the virus mutates further.
The virus has now adopted a 'hit and run lifestyle'. Also, a combination of less cautionary measures and low immunity in the population from the first wave is driving the second wave, which has killed thousands and infected lakhs of people across the country.
Many factors contributed to this second wave and variants are one of the factors. The first wave peaked in September last year and cases started falling substantially, he said.
The first wave peaked in September last year and cases started falling substantially. The first wave declined because of two factors, he said.
"As infections rose, so did immunity among those infected. As cautionary steps at every one at this level, there was less opportunity for the infections to spread.
"A combination of standing level of immunity in the population and cautionary steps halted the spread of the first wave," he said.
But as the cautionary steps declined, new opportunities for infection arose and the level of immunity among the population is often not enough to stop the infection spread.
But as the cautionary steps declined, new opportunities for infection arose and the level of immunity among the population is often not enough to stop the infection spread.
"Many people get infected until they reach a new immunity threshold. Such a second wave is typically smaller than the first. Such a second wave was expected. However, multiple parameters can change and add up to the second wave, much larger than the first.
"(But) Such a larger second wave with the ferocity we are seeing was not predicted," he said.
Elaborating on the evolution of SARS-CoV2 and its increasing lethality, he said the virus emerged in 2019 in Wuhan and at that time it was generalist that could infect many mammal species.
The first phase saw two mutations every month, he said.
However, the second phase which started in October 2020 saw dramatic changes and new variants like the UK variant coming to the fore.
"In early 2021, a very large number of people all over the world had been infected. As the immunity increases, the virus does not have the opportunity to grow," he said.
But it sees that there are pockets it can go through and therefore it evolves for better transmission, he added
Earlier, the virus-infected people were largely asymptomatic and many symptomatic and it had a certain profile of progression.
"Now it has adopted, due to fewer people available, a hit and run lifestyle. And this is what is happening with the new variants coming," he said.
Raghavan said that distancing can exponentially bring down the spread.
"The virus can only go from human to human," he said, stressing on following COVID- appropriate behaviour.
During the briefing, Lav Agarwal, the joint secretary in the Health Ministry, said 12 states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, have more than 1 lakh active COVID cases.
Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Bihar are among the states that show increasing trend in daily cases, he said.
Agarwal added that 24 states and UTs show more than 15 per cent COVID positivity rate.
On vaccination, Agarwal said the total doses administered till now was 16.05 crore.
While 12.31 crore people above the age of 45 years have been vaccinated, the number is at 1.58 crore among healthcare workers.
Around 2.09 crore frontline workers have also been vaccinated, while 6.71 lakh people between 18 years to 44 years have got their jabs so far, he added.
V K Paul, Member (Health) NITI Ayog, appealed to 'physicians' fraternity' to come forward and provide teleconsultations to people and families at home who are infected with coronavirus.
"The response to the changing virus remains the same. We need to follow COVID- appropriate behaviour such as masking, distancing, hygiene, no unnecessary meetings and staying at home," Dr Paul said.
In a reply to a question, he said the disease is not spreading through animals, it's human to human transmission.
In response to another question, Agarwal said that the foreign aid is being monitored by a group of senior officials.
"Our technical wing has made guidelines to see that what hospital would the equipment be suitable for, the equipment is being sent to hospitals where an immediate need has been felt," he said.
