When can Maharashtra expect a third wave of Covid-19 pandemic?
The state health minister also informed that he met Union health and family welfare minister Mansukh Mandaviya the previous week to seek the Centre's nod for administering a booster dose of vaccine for health workers, frontline workers, senior citizens and vulnerable sections.
Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope has warned that the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) may strike the state in December, but added its impact could be mild. Tope also said that during the third wave medical oxygen and ICU beds will not be required in proportion to the previous wave. Tope's observations echoed several medical experts who also maintain that a third wave of the pandemic is unlikely to be as devastating as the second one that struck the country last April.
"The third wave is expected to be mild and medical oxygen and ICU beds will not be required," news agency PTI quoted him as speaking to a news channel on Wednesday.
Tope also spoke about the current Covid-19 scenario in the state and mentioned that 80% of the people in Maharashtra are vaccinated and that the infection level and the mortality rate is less at present. Maharashtra's tally of Covid-19 cases stood at 66,31,297 on Tuesday.
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The state health minister also informed that he met Union health and family welfare minister Mansukh Mandaviya the previous week to seek the Centre's nod for administering a booster dose of vaccine for health workers, frontline workers, senior citizens and vulnerable sections. He also sought to inoculate children in the age group of 12 to 18 years against coronavirus. "Mandaviya said he would discuss the issue with the ICMR," Tope added.
On Tuesday, All India Institute of Medical Sciences director Randeep Guleria said that the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic may not have the same severity as the first two phases of the viral disease, adding that fewer Covid-19 cases being reported in India, indicating that the vaccines have been effective in providing protection against the viral disease. Guleria also underlined there is no need for a booster dose for now.
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