CHENNAI : Health Department Principal Secretary J Radhakrishnan, a senior Tamil Nadu government official on Sunday said that the severity of the coronavirus infection during this wave wave that has been fueled by the new variant Omicron is less as compared o the second wave that swept the country last year. "The death rate during the second wave of COVID-19 was 1:100 and during the third wave it was 1:1,000.
That is, if there are 30,000 cases reported, we have 30 people succumbing to the virus," he said. "The view of medical experts is that the severity of the disease is low this time...
And this (death rate) is an example to that," he told reporters. The official pointed out that the deaths registered during this third wave is one for every one thousand cases reported.
The health official further pointed out that unvaccinated individuals and those eligible to receive the 'precautionary booster dose' are also at risk of contracting the contagion.