With Omicron, third wave projected to hit India by February but may be milder than second

He, however, said a close eye is being kept on cases in South Africa where many cases of this variant have been recorded. Agarwal added that as of now South Africa has not seen a rise in hospitalisation.He said a fresh set of data on the virus and hospitalisations would help in getting a more solid picture.It looks like although the new variant has shown high transmissibility, its severity is not like the one seen in the Delta variant, Agarwal said.He said as observed during the spread of delta, a mild lockdown (night curfew, restrictions on crowding) can bring down beta substantially. That will significantly reduce the peak value, he added.The Department of Science and Technology (DST) backed Sutra-model had earlier said the third wave of coronavirus could hit the country by October if a new variant, more virulent and transmissible than the Delta, emerges.However, till November end, there was no new variant. It had then revised its forecast to November.



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