Third Covid wave of magnitude comparable to first two unlikely: AIIMS chief Guleria

New Delhi: A third Covid wave of a magnitude comparable to the first two is unlikely to hit India, AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria said Tuesday as he underlined that absence of surge in cases at the moment suggests that vaccines are still protecting against the virus and there is no need for a booster dose for now.

Guleria said the way the vaccines are holding up in terms of preventing severity and hospital admission, chances of any huge wave with large admissions is declining with each passing day.

"It is unlikely that a third wave of COVID-19 of a magnitude comparable to the first and second will hit India. With time the pandemic will take an endemic form. We'll continue to get cases but the severity will be highly reduced," he said.

On the need for a booster dose, he said there is no surge in cases as such at the moment which suggests that vaccines are still protecting against coronavirus.

"Therefore there is no need for a vaccine booster dose or third dose for now."

NITI Aayog member (Health) Dr V K Paul said the decision on a third dose should be based on science.

"There are studies being done on boosters we are going through datas and research. This is work in progress," he said, underlining the completion of second dose for India's adult population and those who have not taken vaccine making them take it is the priority for the government for now.

ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said there is no scientific evidence so far to support the need for a booster vaccine dose against COVID-19.

India logged 7,579 new Coronavirus infections, the lowest in 543 days, taking the country's total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,45,26,480, while the active cases were the lowest in 536 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

The death toll climbed to 4,66,147 with 236 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new Coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 46 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 149 consecutive days now.

The active cases declined to 1,13,584 and comprise 0.33 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.32 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

A decrease of 4,859 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.79 per cent. It has been less than two per cent for last 50 days. The weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 0.93 per cent. It has been below

two per cent for the last 60 days, according to

the ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,39,46,749, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.35 per cent.

The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 118 crore on Tuesday. Over 68 lakh vaccine doses have been administered on Tuesday till 7 pm.