Second coronavirus wave likely next year, claims CDC Director
The outbreak of COVID-19, aka the novel coronavirus disease, has killed more than 1.4 lakh around the world. The numbers are still increasing, but going by CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield's latest comments, this could just be the first wave of the pandemic - and a second one might follow sometime next year. Here's more on what he said.
Novel coronavirus could have seasonality
In a recent conversation on ABC's Good Morning America, Dr. Redfield suggested that the novel coronavirus could show flu-like re-occurrence. "We have to assume this is like other respiratory viruses, and there will be a seasonality to it," he said, while adding that "it is very likely that we are going to have another wrestling match with this virus."
"We won't know for sure until we see it"
Dr. Redfield emphasized there is no way to be certain about the second wave but we have to be prepared. "The CDC is science-based, data-driven, (so) until we see it, we don't know for certain. But it is critical that we plan that this virus is likely to follow a seasonality...and we're going to have another battle with it upfront and aggressively next winter."
Need to boost testing, healthcare now
Given this possibility, Dr. Redfield said it is important to expand healthcare and testing facilities to do early case recognition and isolation. "The outbreak this year got ahead, so we went into full mitigation and we lost the ability to use critical public health tools. We are working hard to augment them now...to stay in high containment mode during the second wave."
Second wave could answer questions about COVID-19 immunity
While nobody wants to see another COVID-19 wave, if that really happens, the CDC would be able to define how long antibody immunity, to fight off the virus, lasts. So far, the outbreak of the virus around the globe has infected over 21 lakh people, with 6 lakh being in the US alone. In India, it has infected over 12,000 and claimed 423 lives.
