Districts badly hit by second wave less likely to face third wave: ICMR

Mumbai : A study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has claimed that the districts which were severely impacted by the second wave of coronavirus are likely to get less impact during the third wave. Experts from the apex medical body asked states to conduct district-level heterogeneity assessments — that include studying variations in spread and population, to plan health measures based on local data.

“Talking about a third wave across the entire state may not be helpful as all districts didn’t experience the second wave uniformly. We need district-level infection control and management programmes,” Times of India quoted Samiran Panda, senior epidemiologist and head of ICMR’s Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases Division as saying.

The Centre has asked states to cautiously monitor and take actions against any kind of surge of coronavirus cases. It highlighted 46 districts which are showing more than 10 per cent positivity rate while another 53 are showing positivity between five and 10 per cent.

“All districts reporting positivity rate of more than 10 per cent in the last few weeks need to consider strict restrictions to prevent/curtail the movement of people, formation of crowds and intermingling of people to prevent the spread of infection,” said Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan.