Edited excerpts: There is a lot of talk of a possible fourth wave as China is seeing sudden surge. What is the situation in India?
We have observed during the last six weeks, the covid-19 cases have not increased. In fact, as a result of enhanced testing from the middle of December, the number of testing is now between 200,000 to 250,000 per day.
And still, we are getting 150-200 new cases a day and hardly any hospitalization and deaths. Genomic sequencing has been increased and this is done particularly from two samples—incoming international passengers and sewage samples.
It is a matter of comfort that we are not finding any new variant or any variant which is causing problems outside, and not present in India.