Mild Third COVID Wave Likely In Jan, Feb 2022: IIT Kanpur Prof

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New Delhi: According to an IIT professor, a mild third wave of COVID-19 is likely to peak in India between January and February next year. IIT Kanpur professor Manindra Agrawal, who has made this claim, is a co-founder of the government-backed Sutra model which was used to mathematically project the trajectory of the pandemic in India.

Manindra Agrawal said that cases of the new variant Omicron will be at their peak early next year, around the same time that the Assembly elections in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur have been scheduled, India Today reported.

The researcher said although people should be careful, there is no need to panic about the new variant. In contrast to a South African research study, Manindra Agrawal said that Omicron does not seem to be bypassing natural immunity from COVID in any significant way.

He also noted that, across the globe, the Omicron variant is not leading to critical cases but only mild infection. The data gathered so far suggests that the variant has only mild symptoms, even as its transmissibility appears to be high, the report added.

Manindra Agrawal said that a third wave in the country is nearly certain; however, how bad it will get will depend on how the government tackles it. He recommended mild lockdowns (night curfew, restrictions on crowding) to control the spread of the virus and reduce the peak value.