India reported 38,079 new cases and 560 deaths in last 24 hours ending 9 am on Saturday. The active caseload has dipped marginally to 4,24,025, while the recovery rate has gone up to 97.31%.

Amid widespread public negligence regarding Covid-appropriate behaviour, the head of India’s coronavirus task force Dr V K Paul warned that the possibility of a third wave is very real as India’s population is yet to get herd immunity. The next 100-125 days in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic will be critical, the NITI Aayog member (health) said, adding that people need to remain “cautious”.

On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, Maharashtra and Kerala to take proactive members to rule out any chance of a third wave as cases were rising in these states again.

Meanwhile, an ICMR-commissioned survey has shown that about 1 in 10 people who caught the coronavirus infection after being vaccinated required admission to hospital for treatment of the disease. Crucially, none of those admitted to hospital required ventilator or oxygen support, and none had to be put into ICU.