A recent study by the Indian Council of Medical Research in collaboration with the Imperial College of London stated that a potential COVID-19 third wave may not be as severe as the second wave.
The study which is based on mathematical modeling demonstrates that the new variant is unlikely to cause a new wave unless it leads to a complete loss of immune protection from a previous infection. A more transmissible variant would have to cross the reproduction number threshold of 4.5 to cause the third wave.
“Rapid scale-up of vaccination efforts could play an important role in mitigating these and future waves of the disease,” the study added.