New Delhi: A US-based health expert has said that COVID-19 cases in India will peak by next month with the expectation of reporting around five lakh cases per day. “The severity of the variant will be less this time compared to the Delta variant,” he said.
Dr. Christopher Murray is the Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. “You are entering the Omicron wave, and we expect that there will be more cases per day at the peak than you had in April last year, but Omicron is much less severe,” he added.
According to some experts, further spread of Omicron may lead to other mutations. “The thing about mutations is that they are random. So when the transmission is more, the more potential there is for mutations to occur,” said Dr. Murray.
“Omicron is 90 to 95 percent less severe, but there is still a segment of individuals, particularly older individuals who will get sick. So, there will be an increase. It’s just a much smaller increase in hospitalizations,” he added.
