COVID third phase inevitable, prepare for new waves: Centre's top scientific advisor

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New Delhi: A third phase of the deadly novel coronavirus pandemic is inevitable, claimed K Vijay Raghavan, the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India on Wednesday (May 5).

Addressing a press conference, Raghavan said, "A third wave is almost inevitable given the higher levels of circulating virus in the country. However, it is not clear on what time scale this phase three will occur. We should prepare for new waves," ANI quoted him as saying.

Shedding light on the transmission of the new strains of the infection he said, "Variants are transmitted same as original strain. It doesn't have properties of new kinds of transmission. It infects humans in a manner that makes it more transmissible as it gains entry, makes more copies and goes on, same as original." 

Raghavan asserted that the vaccines are effective against the new COVID-19 strains as well. "Vaccines are effective against current variants. New variants will arise all over the world and in India too but variants that increase transmission will likely plateau. Immune evasive variants and those which lower or increase disease severity will arise going ahead." 

Further, he said, "Scientists of India and all over world are working to anticipate these kinds of variants and act against them rapidly by early warning and developing modified tools. It's an intense research program, happening in India and abroad."