Coronavirus 3rd wave inevitable; home isolation, face mask, physical distance only solution: Health experts

Even as the country grapples with the overwhelming number of new Coronavirus cases everyday, health experts have given a clear warning that there will be a third wave of Coronavirus in India. Speaking at a webinar, Dr Harsh Mahajan, founder of Mahajan Imaging said that there will definitely be a third wave of the virus in the country and face masks and Covid-19 appropriate behaviour should strictly be followed by people. Concurring with Dr Mahajan, senior physician Dr Rahul Gupta said that people should not let their guard down even for a minute otherwise they will be infected by the virus.

Holding the highly infectious strain responsible for multiplication of Covid-19 cases, Dr Neeraj Jain from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said that what makes the second wave more worrying was the fact that disease becomes more virulent and severe after initial 4-5 days and quickly progresses to the lungs rendering drugs and other treatment therapies ineffective. Dr Jain also said that he had also come across cases where fever does not subside upto second-third week leading to more severity among patients.

On the issue of false negatives of RT-PCR as well as Rapid Antigen Tests increasing substantially during the second wave, Dr Mahajan said that despite RT-PCR being a gold standard test its sensitivity is only upto 70 percent and it might lead to incidents of false negatives. He further said that improper sample collection, transport and faulty storage techniques might also be behind the increase in number of false negatives. Advising patients to isolate even if their test turns out to be negative first time, Dr Mahajan said that patients should get tested 2-3 days later again if Covid-19 related symptoms persist.

The comments from health experts came at a webinar hosted by IPE Global and LSE (London School of Economics) Alumni Delhi with MeraDoc here on Thursday. Summing up the situation Dr Gupta said that home isolation was one of the biggest weapon to fight the pandemic and urged people to understand that the four walls of their house was their only world during such times.