Niti Aayog member (health) VK Paul on Friday said the warning about the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic which the World Health Organization has recently issued is for the global situation, which indeed is reflecting the impact of the third wave. “Leaving North and South American regions of WHO, all other WHO regions are moving from good to bad and bad to worse. The world is moving towards a third wave and this is a fact. Prime Minister Narendra Modi too has asked us to take this as a red flag… the PM has given us the target to stall the third wave and it is possible,” Dr Paul said during the press briefing of the Union health ministry.
Spain has seen a 64% hike in weekly Covid-19 cases while the Netherlands has recorded a 300% spike in Covid-19 cases. The situation was stable in Thailand for a long time but now it is also reporting a spike. Africa too has clocked a 50% increase in Covid-19 cases, the ministry said. Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh too are now seeing an unprecedented spike, the ministry said.
‘We are far away from herd immunity’: Dr Paul
“Our population is still vulnerable. We have not reached herd immunity– not even through infection; Not that we want to achieve herd immunity through natural infection. We are making continuous progress in vaccination. At least 50 per cent of our vulnerable population is vaccinated. So we are still vulnerable. But the situation as of now is under control and we will have to maintain this situation,” Dr Paul said adding that the next 100 days will be crucial to understand whether the 3rd wave has arrived in India or not.
“Waves are a post-facto evaluation of how we are managing the situation. The intensity of the waves is more important than the number of the wave. So it does not matter whether it is the 3rd wave or the 4th wave, as this is the natural interaction between virus and human being,” Health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said. ( HT )
