India's Covid Cases to Dip by Feb 15, Vaccines Reduced 3rd Wave Impact: Govt Sources

Covid-19 cases in the country are likely to decline in the country by February 15 while the infections have already started reducing in some states and metro cities, government sources said on Monday.

According to ANI, the sources added that the vaccination coverage in the country has reduced the impact of the third wave as 74 percent of the adult population in the country is fully vaccinated. The government is coordinating with states and union territories on the Covid situation, they added.

The comment comes as data suggests that the third wave has peaked in the four largest cities in the country, with the seven-day average of cases declining in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai.

Delhi has seen a decline in daily cases as it reported 9,197 cases, 19 percent lower than the previous day’s number (11,486). The positivity rate is at 13.3 percent, down from the previous record of over 30 percent during its peak in January.

Meanwhile, Mumbai reported 2,550 new cases and 13 deaths. The Maharashtra capital witnessed daily infections breaching the 10,000-mark a few days ago.

NITI Aayog Member VK Paul said on Thursday that the country is seeing relatively low mortality in the ongoing Covid surge because of enhanced vaccination coverage.

India logged 3,06,064 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,95,43,328, while the active cases climbed to 22,49,335, the highest in 241 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

However, a study by IIT Madras predicted that the national peak of the third wave of the infection is expected to come in the next fortnight. Dr Jayant Jha, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, IIT Madras said as per their analysis, the coronavirus peak is likely to come in the next 14 days till February 6.

The R-value which denotes the rate at which Covid-19 spreads has further to 1.57 in the January 14-21 week. The value indicates the rate at which the number of people an infected person can spread. He added that the data shows that the peak is over in Mumbai and Kolkata and it is becoming endemic while for Delhi and Chennai it is still close to 1.

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