Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra in the past few days is
not the “ripple in the first wave” but a “mighty scary second
wave”, a top health official said on Wednesday.
Speaking during a discussion on news channel NDTV
24×7, civic-run KEM Hospital”s Dean Hemant Deshmukh said the
case numbers were now getting scary.
“Of late, we realise that this (surge) is not a ripple
in the first wave, but a mighty scary second wave itself,
which is starting,” Deshmukh told the television channel.
Deshmukh said the mortality rate was less this time,
and it may be because the virulence is low.
“A virus is likely to mutate all the time and so this
mutation is definitely causing a different kind of coronavirus
and a different kind of COVID-19 presentation altogether in
March, 2021,” he said.
However, Om Shrivastav, part of the state government
appointed task force on the outbreak, said it was difficult to
say whether the recent surge was the onset of the pandemic”s
second wave, and coming to a conclusion would require
scientific calculations based on several outbreak factors.
He told PTI that people must continue to strictly
adhere to COVID-19 norms.
Incidentally, the Centre, in a letter to state chief
secretary Sitaram Kunte had said that “Maharashtra is in the
beginning of a second wave of COVlD-19 pandemic” and had asked
it to plan for a “worst-case scenario” with sufficient lead
time. PTI KK
BNM BNM
Disclaimer :- This story has not been edited by Outlook staff and is auto-generated from news agency feeds. Source: PTI