What is Pandemic Wave and Third Wave of COVID-19

As a country, we have been hit really hard by the second wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The second wave of Pandemic has exposed that we are failed to establish the required health infrastructure. Now government officials and health department are warning the people that there may be a third wave of COVID-19 coronavirus in the country. The Principal Scientific Advisor of the Indian Government Mr K Vijay Raghavan in a press conference said:” the third wave of COVID-19 coronavirus is inevitable and its timing could not be predicted.” After a couple of days, Mr Vijay Raghavan said that the third wave can be avoided if we take strong measures and follow the advisory issued by the governments. What happened when the second wave of COVID-19 coronavirus hit our country, is known to all. We could have saved many lives but we were not prepared for the havoc created by the second wave of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Therefore, hospitals, central and state governments have already started setting up the infrastructure and medical supplies, so that it can be dealt with if the cases of covid-19 increase after a few months or the third wave hit us. The only purpose of these preparations is that the mistakes and negligence that happened during the second wave should not be repeated. The scientists are preparing a map in the laboratory of all possible changes in the coronavirus can have, how these changes can affect the immune system, and how well the vaccine will be able to deal with these changes so that as a country this time we will be well prepared to deal with Covid-19 Pandemic’s third wave.

What is Pandemic or Epidemic Wave:

There is not any particular definition of Pandemic Wave or Wave in Pandemic. Generally, this term is used to describe the increase and decrease in the number of cases in a time period. When the number of cases increases the curve on the graph forms a shape of the wave. Mostly wave term is used for the seasonal disease because many infections and disease are seasonal in nature and the cases related to these are increases then decreases.

For the past 1.5 years, our country is fighting with COVID-19 coronavirus relentlessly. Every region in the country has a different period of surge and decrease of the COVID-19 cases. For example, when Maharashtra reached the peak of cases, other states of India did not reach there.

Now the national curve has entered the declining phase. In India, the Second wave of COVID-19 coronavirus attained its peak on the 6th of May, on that day 4,14,188 cases were registered. Now daily new cases from the past 3 weeks, have been decreasing since on June 5th 1.14 Lakh case were registered.

In India when the daily number of cases will rise again and if this rise will be seen on the national level, then it will be declared as the third wave of COVID-19 coronavirus.

How Fatal the Third Wave of COVID-19 will be?

If it is believed as per some reports then the third wave of COVID-19 coronavirus will be more fatal compared to the second wave. Though this thing cannot be predicted because in the last couple of centuries it is seen that the third wave of pandemic always weaker compared to the last one. The reason is given for this is- When any pandemic hits for the first time, it can affect the world easily as people are not immune to it but in the long run people get immune. But in our country’s case, the second wave was more lethal compared to the first one. In the month of February and March number of daily cases in India were few thousand but from mid of April new daily cases starts to rise again and caused the second wave in the country for which we were not ready since cases were decreasing in March and we were out in the open living the life as usual like there is no threat of COVID-19 coronavirus anymore. We ignore the surrounding and became careless which is one of the reasons why we were hit badly by the second wave. So, if we repeated our mistake then the situation will be worse compared to the second wave when the third wave will come.