Omicron-driven 3rd wave could peak in February

New Delhi: Daily Covid-19 caseload in India that is currently around 7,500 infections is expected to increase once the Omicron starts displacing Delta as the dominant variant, informed members of the National Covid-19 Supermodel Committee and predicted the third wave in India during February 2022.

Vidyasagar, who is the head of the National Covid-19 Supermodel Committee, said India will have Omicron's third wave but it will be milder than the second wave. "Third wave is likely to arrive early next year in India. It should be milder than the second wave due to a large-scale immunity present in the country now. There will definitely be a third wave. Right now, we are at around 7,500 cases per day, which is sure to go up once Omicron starts displacing Delta as the dominant variant," he said.

Vidyasagar, who is also a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Hyderabad, said that it's unlikely that India will see more daily cases than the second wave.

"It is extremely unlikely that the third wave will see more daily cases than the second wave. Please remember that the Government of India started vaccinating ordinary Indians (i.e., other than front-line workers) only starting March 1, which was just about the time that the Delta variant hit. So the Delta variant hit a population that was 100 per cent vaccine-naive, other than the frontline workers."