Principal Scientific Advisor to Centre K Vijay Raghavan said on Wednesday that a third wave of COVID-19 is inevitable and we should be prepared for it.
“A 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 prepare for new waves,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.
“Vaccines are effective against current variants. New variants will arise all over the world & in India too but variants that increase transmission will likely plateau. Immune evasive variants & those which lower or increase disease severity will arise going ahead,” he said.
“Variants are transmitted same as original strain. It doesn’t have properties of new kinds of transmission. It infects humans in a manner that makes it more transmissible as it gains entry, makes more copies & goes on, same as original,” he said.
Furthermore, he said that scientists in India and across the world are involved in intense research program to rapidly act against the variants of COVID-19.
“Scientists of India & all over world are working to anticipate these kinds of variants & act against them rapidly by early warning & developing modified tools. It’s an intense research program, happening in India & abroad.”
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