As 2021 Comes to a Close, Are We at the Brink of a New COVID Wave?

What stage of the pandemic are we in? Are we at the brink of a new wave? Tune in to our final episode of 2021!

The state of the pandemic in India. Image used for representational purpose.

(Photo: Chetan Bhakuni/ The Quint)

As we approach the end of 2021, there is a growing uncertainty over where this pandemic – especially in the wake of a new variant – is headed.

COVID cases in India have been gradually increasing over the past 10 days, with more than 9,000 cases reported in the past 24 hours alone – one of the highest spikes we have seen since the beginning of December.

There has been a gradual upward trend in cases in Delhi and Maharashtra, which has raised fears of a possible third wave in India. For example, Delhi witnessed an 86 percent rise in daily COVID cases, with 923 new cases reported on 29 December.

Mumbai, another hotspot, reported a total of 2,510 cases, which is reportedly more than the total number of cases in Kerala. As many as 400 cases were detected in Bengaluru, 540 in Kolkata, and 294 in Chennai on 29 December.

This surge largely stems from the highly mutated Omicron variant, which is more transmissive than the previous variants. But the total number of cases of this variant is still below 1,000. However, given that each case of Omicron is only detected after the samples are genome sequenced, which takes about a week, there is a possibility that this number is higher.

So for our last episode of 2021, we unpack the biggest story of the year with the following questions: What stage of the pandemic are we in? Are we at the brink of a new wave?

Joining me today to discuss the state of the pandemic in India is Vaishali Sood, The Quint and Quint FIT’s Health Editor.