IIT Kanpur has not forecast a fourth Covid wave, closely watching Covid graph: Centre

New Delhi, March 22

IIT Kanpur has clarified that they have not forecasted the fourth wave of Covid-19, the health ministry on Tuesday informed Rajya Sabha, adding that it was closely watching the trajectory of the disease as cases surge again in some nations.

“IIT Kanpur has clarified that they have not forecasted the fourth wave of Covid-19. It is an independent study done by a team of researchers from their Department of Mathematics and Statistics who have prepared a mathematical model and submitted the same to a preprint server for the experts to comment on. The same is not peer reviewed,” MoS Health Bharati Pawar said in a written answer.

She said modelling studies often involve a relatively small actual sample and extrapolate the result to the entire population.

“While this may achieve near accurate results for a small homogenous country/region, such techniques have failed repeatedly to give reliable results for a large, diverse population,” the minister said.

She said given the emergence of variants of Covid-19 virus with variable transmissibility and other public health implications, the Ministry of Health is closely following Covid-19 trajectory globally and in the country along with various expert committees.

The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) of laboratories is undertaking whole genome sequencing of samples for timely detection of mutant variants of virus.

One lakh health centres ready: Mandaviya

Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya today said one lakh health and wellness centres were ready and functional to provide basic services and cancer screening tests in villages.