Second wave of COVID-19 'less severe' than the first: ICMR DG

Pic/Satej Shinde

Dr Balram Bhargava, Director-General (DG) of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Monday said that the ongoing second wave of the novel coronavirus in India is 'less severe' than the previous one.

Speaking to ANI, Dr Bhargava said: "Very clearly, we find that the symptoms are much less. As I mentioned that the symptoms of joint ache, fatigue, muscle ache, loss of smell or sore throat are much less compared to the first wave. However, shortness of breath is higher in this wave."

He further said that only a marginally high proportion of COVID-19 patients are of younger age and that the average of patients in the first wave was 50 years and in this wave, it is 49 years. He also said that the older population continues to be more vulnerable to be admitted in the hospital in the current wave.

"From zero to 19 years - the difference was 5.8 per cent versus 4.2 per cent, and in 20- 40 years, the difference was 25 per cent versus 23 per cent. There is a marginal difference in this. More than 70 per cent were above or equal to 40 years of age. A higher number of asymptomatic individuals got admitted this year, than a higher proportion of patients admitted with breathlessness," he said.

"There is no change in the death rate between the first wave and the second wave. Similar trends are being seen across all the states because this is a countrywide data of a national registry data which has been collected of only hospitalised patients, so this is 10,000 hospitalised patients that are being analysed," added Dr Bhargava.

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