All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Director Dr Randeep Guleria on Thursday said that if people are careful and India is able to vaccinate a large number of population, then the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic may not even come. Talking about the third wave, Guleria said, "That depends on how we behave, if we are careful and we have good vaccination coverage, then the third wave may not come, or it will be very little."
Sharing his views on the mixing of vaccines, the AIIMS Director said "More data is needed on the mixing of doses. Studies have come which say that it may be effective but with more than usual side effects. We need more data before we can say that this is a policy that should be tried."
Talking about the number of active cases of corona in the country, Dr Guleria suggested that there are some areas where positivity rate is high. There is a need to adopt an aggressive approach to prevent further spread in these areas. He said, "Cases are reducing but there are some areas where case positivity is still high, we need to address the issue aggressively in those areas. They should not become hotspots, leading to the spread of the virus in other areas."
India has been witnessing a gradual decrease in daily coronavirus cases. According to the latest data from the Union Health Ministry, India reported 48,786 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative count of the cases to 3,04,11,634. With 1,005 deaths in the last 24 hours, the death toll has increased to 3,99,459.
The country also witnessed 61,588 recoveries in the last 24 hours taking the cumulative recoveries to 2,94,88,918. With this, the country's recovery rate has increased to 96.97%. On the other hand, India's mortality rate stands at 1.31%. There has been a steady decline in active cases of coronavirus in the country. According to the latest data of the Union Health Ministry, in the last 24 hours, the active cases in the country have been reduced by 13,807.
