NEW DELHI: The
second wave
of
Covid-19
is not yet over though a large part of the country is out of it,
Indian Council of Medical Research
(
ICMR
) director general Dr Balram Bhargava said, underlining the need for district level monitoring of test
positivity rate
to ensure any outbreak is contained locally and a major
third wave
is averted.
Currently, 565
districts
have weekly test positivity at less than 5%. However, 75 districts still have over 10% positivity, whereas 92 districts have positivity rate between 5-10%.
Meanwhile, An ICMR study titled 'Plausibility of a Third Wave of Covid-19 in India: A Mathematical Modelling-based
Analysis
', published in the peer-reviewed Indian Journal of Medical Research on Friday, found a substantial third wave of Covid-19 could occur but it may not be as large as the second wave.
Researchers said scaling up vaccinations could play an important role in mitigating any eventuality and future waves of the disease.
At a briefing, Dr Bhargava said, "The second wave is not yet over in our country. In a large part of India, the second wave is over. However, these districts (where positivity is still above 5%) are important and it is possible for us to avert a big third wave provided individual and societal protective behaviour are adhered to."
While daily new cases have come down significantly over the last few weeks, there are still 125 districts reporting more than 100 cases of Covid-19 every day. There were 6.1 lakh active cases across the country on Friday morning. The overall weekly positivity rate stood at 3.1%.
Bhargava said a third wave could be averted if people continued to follow Covid-appropriate norms and vaccination was ramped up. Besides, districts needed to monitor the test positivity level closely and in cases where it was more than 5%, strict localised restrictions should be imposed immediately.