Important things you need to know about the second wave of COVID-19 in India
The coronavirus pandemic is turning out to be devastating as the second wave of the virus has gripped the country like never before. On April 20, India reported a record of 2,95,000 new cases in a single day. India has so far reported over 4.5 million cases and claimed over 26,000 lives during this second wave.
The second wave is considered to be milder than the first wave but it’s highly infectious. There are several speculations about this second wave in terms of symptoms, spread, death rate, mutant variants.
Symptoms
A higher proportion of asymptomatic individuals got admitted in the second wave.
There are more cases showing symptoms of breathlessness in the second wave while the first wave included fever, cold, loss of smell and taste, and body ache.
Spread
The second wave is showing the fastest spread rate of COVID-19 as compared to the first wave of the pandemic.
Age Profile
People above 45 years are the most affected in both the waves of the virus but there’s a significant marginal increase in the younger patients aged under 45 years in the second wave.
Oxygen Requirement
There is a major spike in the demand for oxygen in hospitals as the second wave of the virus is witnessing more cases of breathlessness as compared to the first wave in 2020. About 41.5 percent of patients required oxygen in the first wave and 54.5 percent of patients require oxygen in the second wave, said ICMR Director-General, Dr. Balram Bhargava.
Mutant Variants
The second wave of the virus is witnessing a major surge in the infected patients as scientists have discovered a double mutant variant of COVID-19 and found it to be highly infectious as compared to the previous strains.