Fourth COVID-19 wave between June-July and September: Karnataka Health Min
The fourth wave of COVID-19 will start between June and July and last till September, according to predictive studies, Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar said on Tuesday, April 12. He also added that Karnataka is prepared to face it and that there was no need to worry as of now. “The new XE variant of the coronavirus is prominent in eight countries and people arriving from those counties are being screened,” he said. Answering a question, he said that wearing masks is still an essential habit and that there will be no relaxation. However, he said that there was no need to worry about the fourth wave.
Speaking about India's vaccination progress, Sudhakar pointed out that vaccines were available for children in India a long before they were available in other parts of the world. "I don't want to bring politics in this collective fight against pandemic, but people should know this. During the last 70 years when other parties ruled, vaccines came much later to India compared to the rest of the world."
“Hepatitis B vaccine was introduced across the world in 1985 but came to India only by 2005. Compared to the rest of the world, the Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine for tuberculosis came 20-25 years later and the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine came 45 years later. However, the first COVID-19 case was found on January 30, 2020 and within a year, by January 16, 2021 India had introduced the vaccine”, Sudhakar said.
He also added that ten vaccines have been approved now and are available in India. “It is a proud thing that one among them is developed in India - the Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech. Other vaccines available here are Covishield developed by Pune-based Serum Institute of India who had tied up with Oxford University and AstraZeneca, Corbevax, Zydus Cadila which is the world's first DNA vaccine,” Sudhakar said.
The minister also said that India had approached Pfizer and Moderna initially expecting that our vaccines may take time. "They agreed to provide the vaccine. But they refuse to take any responsibility or liability if something happens to our people. Our government was not willing to compromise with people's lives, and we decided to not provide the license unless they agreed to take liability,” he said.
Speaking about Karnataka, he said that 10.54 crore vaccines have been administered in the state. The second dose of the vaccine has been taken by 98% of the people and another 32 lakh people are yet to take the second dose. He urged people to take the second dose and also the precautionary dose at the earliest.