Principal Scientific Adviser to the Centre K Vijay Raghavan has told the Indian Express that none of the national or global experts had forecast a second Covid-19 wave in India of such vehemence.
He said that the ferocity of the second wave took everyone by surprise as scientists were anticipating the second wave would be of the same scale as the first one or smaller.
Raghavan told the daily that several factors like lockdown, adherence to Covid-19 guidelines, measures taken by the Centre and states, flattening of the first wave and vaccine development contributed to them not anticipating such a surge in the second wave.
He said that three factors - public behaviour, increased susceptibility of the population, and new variants of the virus - may be the reasons behind the intensity of the current surge.
Sounding a word of caution for West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand, the top scientist said India may peak in May but that also depends on adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour.