Is the second wave more serious than the first wave of Covid-19 for Indians?

Eddiana ShyllaApril 17, 2021

The second wave is unquestionably twice as bad as the first one. In comparison with the first wave, the rapid growth of the positive cases in the country is still increasing within fewer days.

The number of positive cases increased from 18,000 to 50,000 in 32 days during the first wave, and it has now increased from 18,377 to 50,518 in 17 days during the second wave. India is the second most affected country by Covid-19 in the world.

In terms of the overall number of days the virus can infect people, the first wave took 84 days to cross 1 lakh positive cases, while the second wave only took 8 days to reach 2-3 lakhs. It took three days for Covid-19 positive cases to cross 6-7 lakhs of people in the shortest time possible.

The WHO recommends a positive rate of less than 10% – preferably less than 3% – as a general benchmark for adequate testing. India has a positivity rate of 13.2% as of this week.

In spite of all this, the Covid-19 virus has been mutating, and different mutations have been discovered in a number of countries, including India. In March of this year, the presence of two mutations, E 484Q and L 452R, in at least 200 Maharashtra virus samples showed genomic sequence of virus samples, led by the International Society for the Advancement of Genomics (INSACOG).

According to data from genome sequencing, the double mutation coronavirus may be one of the most widespread and prevalent COVID variants in India. The double mutant variant, now known as B.1.617, is the product of the fusion of two mutations, previously mentioned.

GISAID data was released on April 1st, stating that the double mutant variant from India has accounted for 80% of all analyzed genome sequences of mutant variants, following 13% from the UK.

The new strain has few updated symptoms like conjunctivitis, sore throat, headache, rashes, upset stomach and discoloration of fingers & toes.

The number of cases new to India continues to increase in the last 24 hours with 2,34,692 new cases registered. For each Indian, the second wave of Covid-19 is more intense than the first.