1 in 3 Indians Believe 4th COVID Wave Has Hit India. Deets Inside

4th COVID wave latest news today: India has been witnessing sudden spurt in COVID cases for the last few days. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.58 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was 0.59 per cent.

New Delhi: With India’s effective reproduction number (R) for Covid surpassing 1 again, nearly 34 per cent of Indians surveyed said that the fourth wave of coronavirus has already started in April, a new survey conducted by online platform LocalCircles has claimed. For the unversed, India’s R-value an indicator of how quickly the infection is spreading, has increased to over one for the first time since January, estimates a researcher from Chennai’s Institute of Mathematical Sciences. The country’s R-value, steadily increasing over the last few weeks, is 1.07 for the week between April 12-18, according to Sitabhra Sinha. In the preceding April 5-11 week, it was 0.93. The last time the R-value was above 1 was in the week between January 16-22, when the value was 1.28.

When respondents were asked, when do they see the 4th COVID wave hitting India, nearly 29 per cent of citizens said, ‘not likely in 2022’ and 4% said not for six months at least. The survey has received 36,000 respondents residing across 341 districts of India. 41 per cent of the respondents were from tier-1 cities, 33 per cent from tier-2 and 26 per cent from tier-3 and 4 cities and rural districts.

As a whole, 1 in 3 Indians believes that the 4th COVID wave in India has already started. “While 1 in 3 in our survey have indicated that the 4th wave has already started, 2 in 3 don’t think as yet. However, there are parallels with 2021, where a mini-surge in February and March was driven by the B.1.1.7 or Beta variant which was followed by the Delta variant which drove the second wave in India. This time it appears to be BA.2.12.1 driving a surge with BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants that are currently growing in South Africa, the UK, and other countries having the potential to drive the 4th wave in India”,  said Sachin Taparia, founder, LocalCircles.

On being asked if experts will be able to effectively handle things, 55% said that they are highly confident, 29% were somewhat confident.

COVID Cases in India

India recorded 2,927 fresh infections in a day which pushed the case tally to 4,30,65,496 while the active caseload increased to 16,279, according to Union Health Ministry data.

The number of deaths has climbed to 5,23,654 with 32 more fatalities. While active cases increased by 643 in a day and comprised 0.04 per cent of the total infections, the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.75 per cent.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.58 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was 0.59 per cent, the government said.