Nagpur: The fresh outbreak of Covid-19 cases in mainland China and Hong Kong has sounded alarm bells in India about a possible fourth wave hitting the country sooner or later, according to reports.
Notably, China’s new Covid-19 cases more than doubled from the earlier as it now faces by far its biggest outbreak since the early days of the pandemic.
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Wednesday 07 Jan. 2025
The reports said that while the Omicron sub-variant BA2 has caused a huge surge in South Korea — where over 6 lakh cases were detected in a single day—the Indian experts are not worried about it triggering another wave in the country right away. Their reasons include boosted immunity from the third wave that occurred between December 2021 and February and high vaccination coverage in most states. But, people cannot lower their guard as the fourth wave is imminent in India like it has happened in the rest of the world, one expert warned. The only thing that is unknown about the fourth wave is when exactly will it occur and how severe will it be, he added.
The Omicron variant with its 50-plus new mutations had raised severe concern across the world when it was first detected in South Africa in November 2021. It, though, soon became clear that the variant, though hyper transmissible, had not led to increased hospitalisations and deaths. Experts said this was due to vaccination, which protected against severe disease.
Mumbai was one of the first hotspots of Omicron in India, with single-day cases peaking at 20,971 on January 7. Due to genome sequencing, experts realised that both the Omicron variants BA1 and BA2 were in circulation here right at the beginning of the third wave. But there is no imminent threat of a fresh Covid wave in India. The BA2 has been around in India. The new Israeli variant hasn’t yet been classified as a variant of concern. So, until a new concern emerges, there is no reason to fear though we shouldn’t stop wearing a mask, experts said.
