The daily COVID-19 caseload in India will likely rise as the Omicron variant starts replacing Delta as the dominant variant, said members of the National COVID-19 Supermodel Committee, predicting the third wave in India early next year.

Vidyasagar, the head of the National COVID-19 Supermodel Committee, stated that the country will witness a third wave driven by Omicron, though it will be milder than the second one. He said that a third wave is expected early next year and should be milder than the second wave as India has widespread immunity now.

A professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad, Vidyasagar said that it is not likely that the country will record more daily cases than the second wave. In the worst scenario, Vidyasagar said, the country will not have over two lakh cases per day if the third wave emerges, adding that these are projections only, not predictions. Predictions can be made once the behavior of the virus in the Indian population is known… (Economic Times – ANI, December 18, 2021)