(TibetanReview.net, Jun18’21) – If it was the Delta variant which caused the second Covid-19 pandemic wave in India, it is Delta Plus which is feared to be likely to lead to a third wave in the country.
India’s worst-hit state of Maharashtra has already sounded alert for the third wave.
The Delta variant was first reported from Maharashtra last year while its mutation Delta Plus variant was first detected in Europe in March this year.
It is not known yet whether Delta Plus variant is more infectious or fatal than the Delta variant. The Delta variant has been found to be deadlier and capable of causing more severe Covid-19, leading to higher rate of hospitalisation of patients.
Also, Reuters reported Jun 18 that a third wave of coronavirus infections will likely hit India by October. Although it will be better controlled than the latest outbreak, the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year, the report said, citing a Jun 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists, doctors, scientists, virologists, epidemiologists and professors from around the world.
Over 85% of respondents had said the next wave will hit by October, including three who forecast it as early as August and September.
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Meanwhile, the latest data from India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare show that the number of daily new cases in the country had declined by 4,728 to 62,480, while the daily new deaths had fallen by 743 to 1,587 in the past 24 hours recorded on Jun 18 at 8 AM, taking their cumulative totals to 29,762,480 cases and 383,490 deaths respectively.
The country reported its highest ever daily new cases at 4,14,188 on May 7.
Total recoveries have continued to improve to reach over 28.58 million (28,580,647 or 96.03%) while active cases have further declined to reach nearly .80 million (798,656 or 2.68%).
The case fatality rate was 1.29%.
The daily positivity rate has fallen to 3.24% and the weekly rate to 3.8%.
Only Maharashtra (+3,304), West Bengal (+921), Manipur (+24), Meghalaya (+145), Mizoram (+85), Dadra And Nagar Haveli And Daman And Diu (+6), and Andaman And Nocobar Islands (+4) have reported increases in active cases.
Kerala is the only state to have reported more than 10,000 daily new cases this morning.
However, five states continue to have more than 69,000 active cases, namely Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh.
India is currently the country with the world’s second highest total number of Covid-19 cases after the USA, and the third highest total number of deaths after the USA and Brazil.
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At its weekly Thursday briefing, the Covid-19 Task Force of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has said there had been 149 new infections among Tibetans in India and Nepal during the past one week, taking the cumulative total to 4,953, of whom 4,339 had recovered, 488 were active and 126 had died, reported the CTA’s on its Tibet.net website Jun 18.
The task force has said 15,311 (28.57%) of Tibetans in in India and 5374 (over 78%) in Nepal were yet to be vaccinated.
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Across the world the number of Covid-19 cases totaled over 177.48 million (177,483,286) and the deaths over 3.84 million (3,843,421), according to the tally of Johns Hopkins University as of Jun 18, 2021 at 3:52 PM.
