Sharp wave and less decline
Everyone is frightened after seeing the queue of dead bodies in cremation houses. The covid cases are touching the 2 lakh mark every day. Even the intensity of the second wave is more, the decline in the economy is less compared to the first wave.
The Indian economy is in better shape as compared to the previous COVID-19 wave witnessed last year because of vaccines, Chief Economic Adviser K V Subramanian said on Friday.
Speaking at an event organised by e-commerce major Amazon, he said uncertainty is much lower this time but people should be cautious.
“There is a second wave therefore people should be careful about it and follow all regulation
s. But overall compared to the previous episode, we are in better shape because the vaccine is out and the vaccination drive is proceeding. So uncertainty is much lower,” he said.
Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, India went in for one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, leading to a massive contraction of about 24 per cent in GDP.
Beginning March this year, the second wave started rearing its head with a sudden jump in cases, forcing many states to go for localised restrictions to break the COVID-19 chain.
India added a record 2,17,353 new coronavirus infections in a day, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to1,42,91,917, while active cases surpassed the 15-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.
This is the second consecutive day that the country has reported over two lakh cases.
Subramanian further said, “one key thing that stood out during this pandemic is the rollout of e-commerce and digitisation, something that India has embraced.”
