Home Articles COVID third wave likely to hit India by end of August, may...
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Amid the growing concerns over the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, the top medical body Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that it’s likely to hit India by end of August and might be comparatively milder than the previous one.
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“There would be a nationwide third wave but that does not mean that it would be as high or as intense as the second wave,” Dr Samiran Panda, Head of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases at the ICMR has told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
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On Wednesday, World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has stated that the world is now in the early stages of a third wave, amid rising cases of COVID’s Delta variant.
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Speaking at the 8th meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee, Ghebreyesus said, the spread of the Delta variant, along with increased social mobility and the inconsistent use of proven public health measures, is driving an increase in both case numbers and deaths.
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“And after 10 weeks of declines, deaths are increasing again. The virus continues to evolve, resulting in more transmissible variants. Unfortunately, we are now in the early stages of a third wave,” Ghebreyesus said.
COVID situation in India
As many as 41,806 new COVID-19 infections and 581 fresh fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours on Thursday, according to the Union Health Ministry.
With fresh cases, the overall tally in the country has risen to 3,09,87,880, while the death toll has mounted to 4,11,989 after more people succumbed to the deadly disease.
Currently, there were around 4,32,041 cases of COVID-19 active in the country. An increase of 2,095 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
The active cases comprise 1.39 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate stands at 97.28 per cent, as per the health ministry.
