4th Covid wave unlikely in India, says ICMR

New Delhi: The number of covid-19 cases in India is rising once again and people are worried about the possibility of the 4th Covid-19 wave in the nation. However, ICMR on Sunday said that the current spike in coronavirus cases in the country cannot be termed the fourth wave of the pandemic.

India for the past few days is witnessing a surge in the number of active infections of coronavirus with over 3000 cases on a daily basis. The national capital and states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh are adding in big numbers to the daily caseload of India. However, there is no possibility of a 4th Covid wave, the Additional Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Samiran Panda said.

ICMR ADG while speaking to news agency IANS said that the surge has been observed at district levels, hence it cannot be said that the country is moving towards a fourth wave.

"Some surges have been observed at district levels. This is called a blip... Blips are confined to certain geographical regions of the country," he said. While arguing why this is not the indication of a fourth wave, Panda gave four reasons in favour of the statement.

Four reasons As per ICMR ADG, the surge has been found at some local levels which is due to the testing ratio.

"Secondly, what we see is just a blip and we cannot say that entire states are under the grip of Covid."

Thirdly, there is no increase in hospital admission across the country, he noted. And most importantly, according to Panda, no new variant has been found yet which indicates that there is no fourth wave right now. While talking about the positivity rate, he said that sometimes the rate goes up because of low testing.