What is COVID second wave?

The second wave of the corona has started to show its sign of return in early 2021 in UK, Brazil, and South Africa. Experts had been warning India of a surge in Covid-19 cases since October 2020, but back then it didn’t happen. After the half-baked vaccination drive made headlines, which rather made the people and government agencies more callous in their approach, the process of containment efforts of Coronavirus and readiness of hospital infrastructure was both biting dust. We failed to take advantage of our 2020 experience and continue to struggle with very basic problems, like supply of oxygen, ventilator, beds, shortage of staff, medicines.

Close to 60 percent of fresh Coronavirus cases in Maharashtra are because of homegrown mutant variants of SARS-CoV-2, confirms the genome sequencing report.

The local mutation did not play a major role or perhaps any role during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India during 2020.

Along with fever, respiratory problems, body ache, loss of smell, loss of taste, and few other symptoms which were common in the first wave, new symptoms have been detected in the second wave among patients of covid-19 in India, These includes pink eyes, hearing problems and loose motions.

Statistically, a very high number of cases have been reported from states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujrat, West Bengal, Delhi, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh.

On April 12, out of every 100 cases reported worldwide 23 were reported from India. The country also reported its highest single-day spike, which was the highest number of daily cases reported in the world.

A steep rise of almost 10 percent in the number of deaths as compared to last year was also reported.

The current growth rate in the number of new cases is close to 7.5 percent and it is 1.3 times more than the growth rate of 5.5 percent reported in June 2020.

Why it is more dangerous this time?

Statistics say the death rate is much higher this time. The very high number of positive cases is one of the reasons for a higher number of deaths.

The rate of infection is also exponentially higher than before and according to the Delhi chief minister’s statement, more than 65 percent of cases have been reported in the age group of 45 years and below. This means the probability of infection in kids and younger generations are higher this time around. Although there is no approved and comparative data yet to support Delhi chief minister’s statement.

There are other reasons as well for the younger generations to be caught in the middle of the second Covid wave. As recommended, elderly people mostly stayed inside to protect themselves and they got a preference for vaccinations too. So we could see a lesser number of cases in the age group of 45 and above. On the other hand, the younger population had to go out very frequently for different reasons and are hence more prone to infection(s).

Director of the AIIMS Delhi, Dr. Randeep Guleria has pointed out that during the first wave, a patient could spread the infection to 30 to 40% of their contacts. But, “this time, it has been observed that 80 to 90% of people who come in contact with a patient turn positive”, he says.

“Children are definitely more symptomatic now than what we saw in the first wave,” Tanu Singhal, a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist at Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, told the Hindustan Times. “The severity of their illness has gone up.”

Dr. SP Kalantri, professor of Medicine and MS at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in sevagram, Maharastra says “The virus seems to be have acquired a greater transferability now”.

In a recent report from Lancet, it was pointed out that Coronavirus can spread through the air which is in contrast to the earlier observations of spreading through touch or the droplets in the air.

Doctors across India agree to a point that India is seeing greater infectiousness of the virus in the second wave.

There is no nationwide data released by government agencies yet. There needs to be an existence of trust between the Government and the people. The release of the correct data, without manipulations, will certainly help people, Doctors, Scientists, and others to analyze and act accordingly and will also make people aware of the actual impact of the disease.

This is just to remind you all that these are all statistics for us but for those who lost their dear one, he/she was just one and only one for them.

Pray for them and hope the pandemic ends soon and all get medical attention and cure.

The author would like to thank Mr. AK Singh for his valuable input.

Data courtesy: india today and Al-jazeera

Image courtesy: Dreamstime.com