A railway worker checks the COVID-19 test report of a passenger at Katra railway station, amid the threat of spreading of the new COVID-19 variant Omicron, in Jammu.
Highlights
- Scientists say Omicron-led third wave may peak in India in February
- The study suggests that the wave will be milder than the second one
- Omicron variant cases had first surfaced in South Africa
The omicron-led third of Covid may peak in India in February, predicts Prof M. Vidyasagar FRS, Distinguished Professor at IIT-Hyderabad. The possibilities are based on SUTRA Consortium of which IIT-Hyderabad is a member.
Speaking to a news agency, Vidyasagar said that the third wave is likely to arrive early next year in India and subside in a month. It could be milder than the second wave due to a large-scale immunity present in the country now.
The cases may rise in the second month in 2022 but the wave is expected to be milder. They will start decreasing in April and may back to current tally in May. These projections are based on Covid tracker model.
Earlier, IIT Hyderabad, launched a new Covid tracking website which is equipped with several capabilities, including predicting the future course of the pandemic.
The IIT-Hyderabad last Friday formally launched covid19tracker.in that has been built as an alternative to the covid19india.org website which had been set up early 2020, when the Covid pandemic struck India, and was the most popular website for such information, in addition to the Ministry website.
IIT-Hyderabad decided to develop the new site after the creators of covid19india.org had announced in August 2021 that they would no longer maintain up-to-date statistics after October 31, 2021.
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Understanding the criticality of the information to Indians, including researchers, students, and the public, the Director of IIT-Hyderabad authorised a team of developers to carry on the work beyond November 1, 2021.
Prof M. Vidyasagar FRS, Distinguished Professor at IIT-Hyderabad, said, "Currently, we have gone beyond the original website by including predictions for the future course of the pandemic, generated by the SUTRA Consortium of which IIT-Hyderabad is a member. Most recently, we have included the projections for the post-Omicron scenario as well. In the future, we plan to enhance the website by including a search feature to highlight trends and raise alerts as and when required. If resources permit, we will monitor not just India but other countries as well. The emergence of the Omicron variant of concern shows that India cannot collect and monitor its data in isolation."
The website covid19tracker.in, has been built using the public code base of covid19india.org website.
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