India will not witness a fourth wave of Covid-19, say health experts

Health officials and experts have sad that India is unlikely to witness a fourth wave of Covid-19. They state that India’s population has been widely exposed to several variants of the coronavirus and have developed hybrid immunity through natural infection and vaccination.

Dr Pragya Yadav, senior scientist at the government’s ICMR-NIV institute in Pune, said there is no cause for worry until new variants of concern (VoCs) spread in India.
 

She added that China is facing an outbreak of the Omicron variant of coronavirus as people there have not yet developed hybrid immunity. “But in India, people were exposed to Covid in the first, second and Omicron-dominated third wave.”

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Dr N K Arora, chief of the government’s NTAGI group, said that the Covid-19 situation in India is under control. “We have all Omicron viruses which are circulating in any part of the world and despite that Covid cases are declining in India. This means that our Covid vaccination strategy and immunity through natural infection has played a key role.”

On Monday, India reported 5,910 new coronaviurus infections and 26 fatalities, taking the tally of cases to 44,462,445 and death toll to 528,007, according to data released by the union health ministry.

India’s third wave of Covid-19 peaked in January this year with up to 347,000 single-day cases being reported. The country’s second wave was particularly devastating, with cases reaching a peak of over 400,000-mark.

Under the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination program, over 2.13 billion doses have been administered to eligible citizens so far.

China and several other countries are currently facing fresh Covid-19 outbreaks, leading to unprecedented lockdowns in their megacities. Experts blame the situation on lower natural infection rates in those areas. This has sparked concerns about possible newer outbreaks in other parts of the world.