Neuberg Diagnostics, an Indian laboratory company, held a panel discussion on “Coronavirus – variants and vaccination” to seek health experts’ views on the subsequent waves of the pandemic.

The experts who participated in the panel discussion speculated that there will be a second wave of coronavirus in the country. However, it will not be as severe as the first one and it will fizzle out sooner.

Dr. V Ramasubramanian, Infectious Diseases Specialist, Apollo Hospital, said, “US, UK, Brazil and few other countries in Europe had the second wave of the coronavirus. It was inevitable. There is no reason why India would be an exception to this rule.

He added, “Probably the severity of second would be much milder because about 60 per cent of our population is younger. The second wave would be far milder than what UK and US are witnessing. We are seeing a surge in several states, but it will not be as severe as the first one and would be shorter and fizzle off sooner.”

Dr. V. Ravi, Former professor of Neurovirology at NIMHAN and Nodal Officer for genomic confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 Government of Karnataka, said, “If you are not infected or not vaccinated, then be sure that the virus will catch you. Sooner or later, the virus will catch most of us.”

He explained that when there is an unprecedented surge of infection, people behave responsibly. That’s one reason why the infection rate comes down. Whenever there is a surge, there is continuous, testing, tracking, and tracing for containing the infection.

“Once the first wave subsided, the complacency has set in. Historically, it is true that any respiratory wave will have a second wave. So, we will have a second wave. But it will not be to the extent of the first wave,” he said.

Dr. Saranya Narayan, Chief Microbiologist, Neuberg Diagnostics, said, “To a certain extent, vaccination will help us in combating the second wave.”

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