Covid infections in India peaked in September and if all precautions are followed then the pandemic would have run its course by early next year, according to the mathematical projections by Covid-19 Supermodel committee, appointed by the government.
The committee chaired by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad’s M Vidyasagar has projected that by mid-February the pandemic curve would have reached the baseline with total symptomatic coronavirus infections reaching 10.6 million. The study has projected that 30 per cent of India’s population has covid-19 antibodies at present.
“By the end of February, 2021, the number of cases would not be zero – obviously you will never have zero cases. But it will be very minimal and we can certainly cope,†M Vidyasagar, professor IIT Hyderabad and chairman of the Covid-19 supermodel committee said.
In epidemiology this stage is also known as the endemic. Many epidemiologists believe that the stage where coronavirus infections would have completely declined would take at least 8-10 months.
The current study is based on the assumption that adequate precautions are taken and people follow covid-appropriate behaviour including social distancing, wearing masks and sanitising.
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While the sero-survey by the Indian Council of Medical Research had found that 7 per cent of the population was exposed to coronavirus by the end of August, the committee had projected the number of people with antibodies was almost double at 14 per cent.
The study also said that relaxation is protective measures, especially with festivals and winter season around the corner can lead to a significant spike of 2.6 million infections within a month. This was seen in Kerala, when the infection rose in September right after the Onam celebrations in the state. There was also a drop of 22 per cent in the medical response to the rising number of cases.
The committee also did a study of various lockdown scenarios. It found that if there was no lockdown then the total number of active symptomatic cases would have peaked in June at 14 million and over 2.5 million deaths by August. The actual situation with the lockdown measures that were imposed shows that India had 1 million active symptomatic cases at the peak level in September and deaths were limited to 100,000.
While finding the evidence supporting the initial lockdown, the study has found that there are no significant benefits of another lockdown in the country and the pandemic will still end by February in both scenarios.
The study has also found that the migrant movement did not lead to a sharp rise in total number of infections and that if the migrant population was allowed to move before the lockdown it would led to significant adverse impact.
The study took the example of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. “There will be an immediate bump in the curve for the obvious reason that some fraction of these migrants would be carriers of the virus. But there was no multiplier effect that would cause a huge spurt in these states. †Vidyasagar said.
Arguing against the suggestion that the government should have allowed people to migrate and then imposed a lockdown Vidyasagar said, “That would have been a complete disaster…The quarantining of the migrants wherever they worked for a few weeks, certainly was a very effective strategy to contain the growth of the virus.â€
The committee includes representatives of IIT Kanpur, Christian Medical College- Vellore, Integrated Defence Staff, National Institute of Virology- Pune, national institute of epidemiology among others.
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