HYDERABAD: Scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad have begun testing samples of suspected Covid-19 reinfection cases, even as they warned Delhi and other states of a second and third wave.
Dr Rakesh Mishra, director, CSIR-CCMB, said the first few samples from Bhubaneswar, Odisha, turned out to be false-positive cases
Dr Mishra said while it is very difficult to say for the whole country, but even within cities, there are pockets. “But each city has its own dynamics and character in terms of which stage it is in the infection. But it is true that second or third or even further waves will come,” he said. The scientist said the best defence available now was masks, social distancing and hand hygiene for the next two years.
Junking the popular theory of winter accelerating the spread of the virus, he said that weather is not a factor in transmission but human behaviour is. “It is not really the winter, but it is the indiscipline that we have been slowly slipping into resulting in the second wave. In fact, winter is yet to settle in most of the places,” he said.