The Maharashtra COVID task force on Wednesday warned the state government that the new “Delta plus” variant can trigger a third wave in the state as early as in the next 2-4 weeks. Owing to the large crowd in the markets all over the state in the last five days, the task force also urged everyone to follow the COVID-19 appropriate behavior like social distancing, masking, and proper sanitation.
These predictions of the third wave were brought up in a high level meeting attended by CM Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday, also attended by senior bureaucrats, task force members, and health minister.
Dr. Shashank Joshi, a member of task force quoted that “US had a time gap of 12-14 weeks between the second and the third wave but UK has faced in less than 4 weeks which is a high sign we should be prepared for it if the wave attacks the state in next 2 weeks mainly because of the reports of delta variant in India.”
He further stated that the models that the government relied on to project the trajectory of the third wave also suggested a time gap of 90-120 days. Though we don’t completely believe it, we cannot completely reject it too.
On a brighter side, “Children are most likely not a target in the third wave. We are expecting a patient rate of 10% from children and young adults which is the same as the first and the second waves. To be more precise, children contributed 3.5% to the total infected list,” -Mr Joshi.
However, it is predicted that the lower-middle class and middle-class people who aren’t exposed to the virus in the first and the second waves are more vulnerable to it.
It is expected to be deadlier or is projected to have double the cases from the second wave. The first wave reported an overall of 19 lakh cases, whereas 40 lakh cases are reported in the second wave. And now, the third wave is expected to have an active case toll of 8 lakhs.
Amid all the reports and projections put forward, CM Uddhav Thackeray stated, “We have learned our lessons in the first and the second waves and we cannot repeat the same mistakes again. We need to be prepared with sufficient kits, medicines, and beds for all the medical emergencies. We are expected to receive 42 crore vaccine doses by the end of September which will help vaccinate the full state which will be a good armor to fight the virus.”
It has been concluded by the task force that with proper and COVID-19 behavior, we can reduce the damage that third wave is about to cause.
The third wave, if truly hits the state of Maharashtra in the next 2-4 weeks, then in no time, the whole country will face yet another wave of the deadly coronavirus that will once again destroy the economy, lives, and livelihood if neglected for even a few days.