NEW DELHI: Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, K Vijay Raghavan today cautioned as the COVID-19 virus mutates further, the third wave of COVID-19 infection is inevitable and it is necessary to be prepared for new waves.

The government on Wednesday said that a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic was ‘inevitable’, although a time-frame for it could not be predicted.

Speaking at a press briefing by the ministry of health affairs Raghavan said the long Covid wave of such ‘ferocity’ that the country was experiencing currently ‘was not predicted’ but stressed that the third phase would eventually come although it was not clear on what time-scale this phase will occur. 

"The virus is getting better at transmission and more variants would emerge so vaccines updates too are inevitable, but we should be prepared for new waves," he said.

According to Raghavan, the virus has now adopted a 'hit and run lifestyle' which along with a combination of less cautionary measures and low immunity in the population from the first wave was driving the second wave, which has killed thousands and infected lakhs of people across the country.

With active cases climbing to 34.87 lakh in India, Raghavan said it was not expected that the second wave would hit the country with such ferocity.

"Many factors contributed to this second wave and variants are one of the factors. The first wave peaked in September last year and cases started falling substantially," he said.

In the same briefing, joint secretary in the Health Ministry, Lav Agarwal said that 12 states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, have more than 1 lakh active COVID cases while states like Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Bihar were showing an increasing trend in daily cases.

On vaccination, Agarwal said the total doses administered till now was 16.05 crore. "While 12.31 crore people above the age of 45 years have been vaccinated, the number is at 1.58 crore among healthcare workers," he added.

According to Agarwal around 2.09 crore, frontline workers have also been vaccinated, while 6.71 lakh people between 18 years to 44 years have got their jabs so far.

V K Paul, Member (Health) NITI Ayog, who also spoke during the briefing said, "The response to the changing virus remains the same. We need to follow COVID- appropriate behaviour such as masking, distancing, hygiene, no unnecessary meetings and staying at home." 

Dr Paul also appealed to the 'physicians' fraternity' to come forward and provide teleconsultations to people and families at home who are infected with the coronavirus.