Top government expert warns of third Covid wave; Testing norms revised to ease pressure on laboratories; more

Addressing a press briefing on India's Covid-19 situation on Wednesday, Prof K Vijay Raghavan, the principal scientific advisor to the central government, said while the third Covid-19 wave is inevitable in India, the time when it will occur and its scale is not certain at present. In the wake of the changing nature of variants, we must be ready for the third wave, he said. "We can't predict the timing, but it seems inevitable. We must prepare ourselves and be ready for it." Prof Raghavan said while vaccines are effective against variants, but the scientific community needs to keep working on vaccines and make changes accordingly.

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has released a new set of guidelines for Covid testing, talking about reducing RT-PCR tests in order to take the load off existing 2,506 laboratories. To help the exhausted labs, the ICMR is now suggesting Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) for mass detection. It said the RAT should be allowed in government and private healthcare facilities across the country in cities, towns, schools, colleges, and community centres. The ICMR also suggested creating drive-through RAT facilities.

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