Third wave of COVID-19 may hit in October: Can India stop it?

Reports have begun to warn us. Health experts believe that the third wave of COVID-19 is likely to hit India by October. We are in June right now, still reeling under the impact of the second wave as the number of new coronavirus cases is not yet under 50 thousand per day. Though with the speed of decline in the number we may hit the lowest number by the end of the month. While one development offers a sense of relief, the reports emerging in the media are shaking us up to the upcoming threat, compelling us to think: is the warning real? Can we stop it from happening? Is that possible?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi put it out in the right context when he was speaking to the frontline workers on Friday urging them to be prepared to combat new challenges. He said that COVID is still amongst us and the virus is mutating. His idea is to build an ‘army’ of one lakh frontline workers in the country to defeat the pandemic.

Can Delta Plus variant of COVID cause third wave in India?

The crux of the matter is it’s difficult to kill your enemy when it continues to change its form and formula continuously. SARS-CoV-2 is mutating rapidly and it’s mutating to become more virulent. While the Delta variant wreaked havoc in the second wave of the pandemic, speculations are rife that the Delta Plus may spread ‘fast and furious’ giving rise to the third wave in India.

Though the severity of the infection caused by the new variant is not fully known yet as studies are still underway to assess its assailability, what raises concerns about Delta plus is its resistance to the antibodies therapy.

That is about Delta plus. But we still don’t know if there are other mutants also at work in the world. They must be. And we may get to know about them in the near future.

This is what leads to worries about the effectiveness of the available vaccines on the new mutants. The research is being conducted but there are fair chances that the vaccinated people can withstand the severity of the new variants as well.

How we can avoid severity of COVID third wave in India

The question is how can we stop the virus from mutating? The answer is: by stopping it from spreading. Because virus needs bodies to mutate. It requires to move from body to body for a mutation to take place. And how can we stop it from spreading? We all know the answer: by maintaining the COVID protocol.

This is the only weapon we have to stop many more waves of pandemics. The vaccination of course you need to protect yourself from the severity of infection. The best we can do.

The third wave of COVID-19 may still occur because many of us are still in denial mode or are too careless or tired to worry about the pandemic anymore. This is where the danger lies.

But the silver lining in the new warning is that the third wave could be less devastating than the last one. Maybe because of the rapid speed of vaccination, preparedness for oxygen and hospital beds, and the stock of medicines. This time the governments across the country seem in no mood to lower their guards and so are the majority of citizens.