A COVID-19 tracker, developed by UK's University of Cambridge, has predicted that India may soon see an intense but short-lived virus wave "within days", even as the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID is spreading like wildfire in the country with over 780 cases reported on Wednesday, 29 December.
The tracker had aptly predicted the devastating second wave in May and had also forecast in August that India would see a slow burn in its COVID infections.
"New infections will begin to rise in a few days, possibly within this week," he said.
However, he added that it was hard to predict how high the daily cases could go.
The rapid spread of Omicron infection has contributed to the total tally of COVID infection in India.
The country's overall COVID cases tally crossed the 9,000-mark on Wednesday, 29 December, and currently stands at 9,195 cases. However, the overall tally has been around 7,000 in the last week.
According to the Union Health Ministry update, the Omicron infection has so far spread into 21 states and Union Territories.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) in its weekly epidemiological update has warned that the risk posed by the Omicron variant is still "very high".
Omicron is behind rapid virus spikes in several countries, including those where it has already overtaken the previous dominant Delta variant, said the global health body in its weekly bulletin.
(This story was published from a syndicated feed. Only the headline and picture has been edited by FIT)
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