COVID-19 Third Wave: Here's what to note for Delta Plus Variant to stay safe

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the third wave is inevitable. It's not only about India, but US, UK, South Africa and Brazil- all are experiencing the presence of the third wave. We saw some major devastations in the last wave. We need to watch out for more strict measures in view of ramping up healthcare infrastructure, vaccination drives and following the COVID appropriate behaviour. Being an RNA virus, COVID has an internal tendency to mutate and be more infectious, however, the only thing that can save lives is to mask up. So, Dr Charu Dutt, Infectious Disease Specialist and Home care expert at Asian Institute of Medical Sciences, Faridabad talks about certain things that we need to note for the third wave of COVID 19.

1-We must not let our guards loose, must get vaccinated as soon as possible and follow strict social distancing guidelines.

2-Children might be getting majorly infected in the third wave. There is no clinical data to support this thought. However, being the only group of population, which still remains un-vaccinated, there is a high-risk segment. But due to reasons not clearly known, the severity of illness in children is less as compared to adults.

3-With the current reopening of markets and people travelling to different parts of the country, COVID is going to spread at a much faster rate. Only lockdowns is not the solution, but implementing safety protocols at a "micro" level is the best option to derail the spread and break the chain.

4-The new DELTA PLUS variant seems to be a variant of concern. But there is not enough data to prove that it would be the cause of the impending third wave. We are not sure if the current vaccine is effective against variants of coronavirus. However, if we scale up the level of sequencing to identify the emerging variants, and then apply strict containment efforts, we would be successful in minimising the damage of the third wave.

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