Expert says relaxation, virus variants behind recent COVID-19 surge in India

NEW DELHI, March 21 (Xinhua) -- The recent spike in COVID-19 infections in India was likely caused by slip-ups in precautionary measures and more infectious variants of the novel coronavirus, Dr Randeep Guleria, director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, has said.

"There is a loss of COVID-19 appropriate behaviour. Now people feel that the pandemic is over because vaccines are here. So they fail to wear masks. We see large crowds gathering -- again without masks. Many of these crowded events have become super-spreading events," Guleria told a local television news channel on Saturday.

"The other issue is that it became little lax in the basic principle of testing, tracking, and isolating than what were doing six months ago. The third point is that the virus itself is mutating and some of the variants are more infectious," he said.

Guleria warned the coronavirus epidemic would spread even more rapidly if basic protective steps like wearing masks and rigorous contact-tracing were not taken.

In the last 24 hours, India reported 43,846 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, a new daily-high in nearly four months.

The recent surge in infections has prompted states like Punjab, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to consider resuming the restrictive measures including school closures, restricted public gatherings, and lockdowns in worst-hit districts.

According to India's federal health ministry, the states of Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh accounted for 77.7 percent of the new COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours.