Bhubaneswar: Clearing the air on the possible onset of the third wave of Covid-19 in Odisha, Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET) Monday said it is still in an assessment stage.
Speaking to reporters here, CBK Mohanty said, “The third wave of Covid-19 is still at an estimate stage, we have to see whether it will arrive or not. Different people are making different opinions about the third wave.”
While many are suggesting that the third wave is likely to hit by October or November, the daily cases are declining and the situation currently is in a plateau stage, he said.
Though the spread of Covid-19 in the community has come down, people have to remain cautious and follow all Covid-19 appropriate behaviour till it has not been rooted out, he said.
Commenting on the R-value or effective reproduction number used by the Chennai-based Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) to measure the spread of Covid-19, Mohanty said it does not reflect the situation at the grassroots level.
During the first wave, the R value was 2.5 per cent, now it is less than 1 per cent (0.88) in India. So it is just a mathematical model, the director stated.
The R-value stands for the number of people one person can infect. If the R-value is more than 1, it means every 100 infected people on an average can pass on the infection to more than 100 people.
Meanwhile, Public Health Director Niranjan Mishra said the state government is completely prepared to deal with the possible third wave of Covid-19.
The Covid-19 infection graph in the state is in decline while in some districts, the infection is still on the plateau stage. However, there is no need to panic, Mishra said.
Now, the government is giving emphasis on testing, tracking, tracing and jabbing, he added.
PNN
