Before the third wave

The vaccine policy urgently needs revision

The number of new Covid-19 infections may suggest that India is not in the throes of the dreaded third wave of the pandemic. But given the highly infectious nature of the Omicron variant, it is critical that the country is prepared well ahead. To be sure, the number of daily new cases as on December 23 at 7,495 represents a steady fall from the May high of 400,000-plus, and epidemiologists have suggested that Omicron is a variant of concern, not panic, since the symptoms from the virus are mild and rarely result in death. This benign outlook should not lull