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Business News/ News / India/  Third wave: India yet to see peak in Covid cases, say experts
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Third wave: India yet to see peak in Covid cases, say experts

According to the Ministry of Health and family welfare the current positivity rate remained at 15.52% on Tuesday.

A health worker takes a swab sample of a passenger for the Covid-19 test (PTI)Premium
A health worker takes a swab sample of a passenger for the Covid-19 test (PTI)

NEW DELHI : India is yet to see the peak of the current Covid-19 wave, warned health experts on Tuesday as India reports 2,55,874 new cases in the past twenty four hours. 

Health experts cited the majority population that resides in rural India.

India's Tuesday Covid case tally was 50,190 less than yesterday. The country also reported 614 deaths in the last 24 hours. India's active caseload stands at 22,36,842 on Tuesday.

The experts also noted that hospitalization has been far less in the current variant than in the second wave, but patients with comorbidities are still requiring hospital admissions and ICU beds.

The third Covid-19 wave, fueled by the new variant Omicron has engulfed India.

This Omicron variant was designated as a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation (WHO) after it was detected in South Africa.

However, this variant has shown milder symptoms and lesser death count. The variant is however, highly transmissible and can evade immunity. 

Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, senior consultant, Internal Medicine, Apollo Hospitals said, "The metropolitans have already seen a peak and currently the graph is showing a steady downward trend. But the tier-II and tier-III cities and the villages have reported less number of cases. India as a country might see a peak in one or two weeks."

"Omicron in India has been mild so far. People are getting infected fast and are also recovering at a much faster pace. But we should not lower our guards at all," he added.

Another expert Dr DS Rana is of the view that with milder infection and faster recovery, people are getting reluctant for the test. Further, many opt for rapid antigen self-test kits. These lead to dropping in the daily number of cases.

Dr Rana, chairman, Sir Gangaram Hospital, Delhi said, "This happened during delta variant also when cases started decreasing in cities it showed an upward trend in villages. Covid is primarily a respiratory disease and the contagiousness depends on the density of the population."

He added, "Unlike the time of delta wave, many opted to stay back in cities rather than going back to their villages. But despite everything, due to its transmissibility rural population will definitely see a rise in cases in the coming weeks. However whether it will be recorded or not, largely depends on how tests are being done."

Many of the top health experts emphasised on accelerating genome sequencing for Covid cases.

According to the Ministry of Health and family welfare the current positivity rate remained at 15.52% on Tuesday.

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Published: 25 Jan 2022, 08:29 PM IST
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