How India's second Covid wave started, what went wrong, and what can be done: Top virologist answers

Since April, India has been witnessing a surge in Covid-19 infections with the country seeing over 3 lakh fresh cases of Covid-19 daily. Amid this massive surge, which has caused a visible strain on the healthcare system, India’s top virologist Dr T Jacob John tells India Today what went wrong and what measures can be taken to tackle the situation.

Amid the second wave of Covid-19, healthcare personnel in India have been trying to do their best under trying circumstances. Stretched to the breaking point, the pressure of work and shortage of material during the second wave may cause deaths that could have been avoidable, India’s top virologist Dr T Jacob John has said. In an email interview to India Today’s Priyamvadha P Vijayakumar, Dr T Jacob John, former professor and head of the department of clinical virology and microbiology at Chennai Christian College in Vellore said, “The so-called UK variant was detected in September 2020. That was an alert for India to be on guard and look systematically for variants of concern. In December, the lab consortium was networked but the goal of gene sequencing in 5 per cent of all cases was not taken seriously.” In this detailed interview, Dr John analyses how India ended up in the present crisis. How it started, where we went wrong, and what can be done. Dr John also clears myths about vaccination in this tell-all interview.