‘People ignoring Covid norms is leading to the rise in cases’

India is witnessing a sudden rise in Covid cases once again. On Friday morning, the country recorded over 40,000 fresh Covid cases, which was the worst Covid spike this year. Maharashtra, with over 20,000 daily Covid cases, is the highest contributor to this rise. Dr Randeep Guleria, Director of All India Institute of Medical Science, Delhi, said that this rise is worrying and could be the beginning of the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic in the country. Several doctors and experts told The Sunday Guardian that this surge could have resulted from people not following Covid protocols.

Dr Swapneil Parikh, Cofounder, Diy.health, told The Sunday Guardian: “As restrictions have been lowered and social contact has increased, susceptible hosts come into contact with infected individuals. We lifted restrictions too quickly and that gave the virus a chance to spread from one host to many. The rapid increase of cases in areas that had high seroprevalence makes me suspect this is variant related. Either we’re seeing a more transmissible variant or one that’s causing some reinfections or both. The interaction of host behaviour (increased social contact) and evolution of the virus may be causing such a rapid increase in cases.”

On the possibility of a situation similar to last year, Dr Parikh said: “I hope not. We’re better equipped today to respond. Our healthcare workers, the elderly, and those with high-risk conditions are being vaccinated. We have more tools than ever; testing is cheaper and more widely available, treatment is more refined, and high-quality masks are cheaper. There’s a lot of uncertainty about how severe this wave will be, but there’s complete certainty about how to stop it. We don’t know how bad it will get, but we know exactly how to stop it from ever getting there. There could be a more transmissible variant of SARS-COV-2 causing a spike in cases, but we need to