Be prepared for reinfections: Top virologist says THIS about fourth wave in India amid rising Covid cases

(Photo credit: ANI)

New Delhi: With a slight but sudden uptick in daily Covid-19 cases, especially in Delhi and surrounding cities, the question of whether or not it’s the beginning of another, possibly fourth wave of coronavirus is natural.

Amid the fourth wave scare,  Dr Gagandeep Kang, top virologist and professor at Christian Medical College in Vellore said that labelling this slight rise in infections as “Fourth wave” would be a stretch.

Having said that, the top expert also added that Indian must prepare themselves for reinfections, despite vaccination and previous Covid history.

While talking to NDTV, Kang told,” Saying that the recent surge in cases is the onset of the fourth wave would be a stretch, however, people must be prepared for reinfections irrespective of vaccinations or previous infections.

The virologist also advised against dropping one’s guard amid the changing projections.

Covid cases rising in Delhi-NCR

The recent surge in daily cases of virus infection in Delhi and its neighbouring state Haryana has sparked concerns over the possibility of a fresh Covid wave.

Delhi has seen over two-fold rise in new infections in the last one week, as per the health bulletin released by the Delhi government. On Friday, the national capital reported 366 new Covid cases taking the current positivity rate to 3.95%.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus positivity rate in Gurugram has seen an uptick and now stands at 8.5%.

XE variant behind the coronavirus surge?

While the variant continues to pose risk in the neighbouring countries with a record surge in Covid cases in China and a few other Russian nations, it is still not ascertained whether the XE variant is behind the uptick in Covid cases in India.

XE is believed to be a combination of two lineages of the highly transmissible Omicron variant BA.1 and BA.2 (stealth Omicron).