NEW DELHI: While rising Covid cases in 50 districts of nine states have set alarm bells ringing in the backdrop of Omicron scare, experts say fears of a third wave of the pandemic may be unfounded at this stage.
So far, a total of 23 Omicron infections have been confirmed in the country with Maharashtra reporting two more cases on Monday.
“Two more cases of Omicron, a 37-year-old South Africa returnee man and his 36-year-old US returnee friend, have been confirmed,” the state government said. Notably, neither of the two patients displayed any Covid symptom. And, both had taken Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine.
Over the past 10 days, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir, Odisha and Mizoram have reported a notable uptick in active Covid cases, prompting the Union health ministry to shoot off letters asking these states to step up surveillance and disease containment measures.
According to public health specialists, the spike in cases is the result of increased testing involving those who are seen asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.
Health economist Rijo M John, who has been studying Covid numbers since the beginning of the pandemic, said: “There is absolutely no sign of cases going up at the national level at the moment… We would not see a third wave as bad as the second in India.”
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Epidemiologist and health systems expert Dr Chandrakant Lahariya said he is not worried about the spread of Omicron pushing the wave of infections in the country.
“Based on available information on the variant so far-we do not panic yet as in our kind of setting, any big third wave is now highly unlikely,” he opined.
“We need to understand that the number of infections in some districts and even the test positivity rate to some extent are bound to rise due to targeted testing and testing of even the asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic people,” Lahariya added.
