Third wave on the wane, but COVID management strategies needed: Centre

The government has said that the fall in daily count of coronavirus cases since January 21 is encouraging, but added that “COVID management strategies still need to be implemented”.

Health Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal told media persons on Thursday (February 3) that cases and deaths have been lower this time than the second wave which killed lakhs of people during the months of April-May last year.

India recorded 1.72 lakh new COVID cases at 8am on Thursday, which is just about 50% of the cases reported on January 21 (3.47 lakh) — the highest (so far) during the Omicron-led third wave.

When asked if the peak of the third wave has passed, Agarwal said, “We are definitely seeing a drop in cases. I won’t use words like wave or peak. There are still some areas where cases are increasing. COVID management strategies still need to be implemented because overall we are still seeing high number of cases,” he said.

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In the last 12 days, test positivity rate (number of infections per 100 tests) came down from 17.95 per cent to 11 per cent – a 40 per cent fall. This is a sure indication of decrease in spread of the virus.

While most cases now have a test positivity rate below 10 per cent, states like Kerala and Mizoram are still reporting a surge. However, on a positive note, recoveries surpassed new cases in Kerala with the state reporting 42,677 cases on Thursday while 50,821 people recovered.

Agarwal said that unlike the case in the second wave, the present variant of the virus is not leading to higher complications or deaths.