The spike in Covid-19 cases in Kerala could have been avoided if the state had not resumed religious gatherings, said Anurag Agrawal, one of the directors of the government’s genome sequencing monitoring agency INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium).
Anurag Agrawal told India Today TV that allowing religious gatherings was a bad idea and the Kerala government should have only reopened essential services.
“From 13,000 cases to 20,000 cases would not have happened if Kerala had not opened for religious gatherings,” Anurag Agrawal said.
Anurag Agrawal said Kerala was behind the pandemic curve as compared to North India and Covid-19 infections would continue to rise in the state.
While no new variant of SARS-CoV-2 has been identified in Kerala, Anurag Agrawal said the genome sequencing of samples from the state had shown that at least 90 per cent of the cases were of Delta variant, the mutant strain responsible for the severe second wave during April-May this year.
ON COVID THIRD WAVE
Anurag Agrawal said the third Covid-19 wave was expected to arrive in India in the September-October period. However, he said the second wave was not over as it reached different parts of the countries at different times.
The only way to avoid a rise in Covid infections in future is to accelerate the vaccination drive, the director said. He said Indian vaccines could give around 60 per cent protection against Covid infection.
The INSACOG director said in areas like Delhi-NCR, where immunity is high now, the rise in cases won’t happen soon. Delhi-NCR would see a surge eventually, but it could be a small outbreak, he said.
“Previously recovered people will not get severe disease, hence the third wave will not be very severe,” the director said. “But all this will change if the virus changes its form,” he cautioned.
