Rising mercury, humidity can again trigger COVID-19 mayhem in India: Experts

The rising mercury in north India and humid conditions in places like Maharashtra can again play havoc if people flout Covid guidelines top health experts said on Tuesday admitting that the current weather conditions in the country especially in the western part is conducive for Covid19 transmissionSix states Maharashtra Punjab Karnataka Madhya Pradesh Tamil Nadu and Gujarat continue to report major surge in daily cases of Covid19 accounting for 7856 per cent of the new cases in the countryIndia recorded 56211 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours 17 per cent lower than the day before taking the total tally to 12095855 on Tuesday Lower count of cases was a result of fewer testings owing to HoliAccording to Harshal R Salve Associate Professor at the Centre for Community Medicine AIIMS climatic factors such as ambient temperature and relative humidity are found to be responsible for increased transmission of Covid19The current weather conditions in the country are conducive for Covid19 transmission This might be one of the factors for rising cases in these parts of the country Salve told IANSRegistering a steady increase for the 20th day in a row active cases have increased to 540720 accounting for 447 per cent of the total infectionsAccording to Manoj Goel Director Pulmonology Fortis Memorial Research Institute Gurugram the pandemic has a tendency to come in waves of infection and possibly that could be the recent reason for the outbreak of the diseaseThis is also largely related to more unrestricted social engagement of the people and not following Covid appropriate behaviour Goel saidSalve added Nonetheless mask use avoiding crowded places and accepting vaccination remain the key for Covid control in the countryMaharashtra Kerala Punjab Karnataka and Chhattisgarh cumulatively account for 7964 per cent of the total active cases in the country Maharashtra leads with more than 62 per cent of the active caseload in the countryBut the cases are now steadily rising in DelhiNCR too with the onset of summerThe lack of social distancing and mask adherence and decrease in hand hygiene is resulting in higher number of cases said Neha Gupta infectious diseases specialist at Medanta The Medicity GurugramAs on Day 73 of the vaccination drive on Monday a total of 582919 vaccine doses were given out of which 551164 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 14608 sessions for the first dose while 31755 beneficiaries received the second dose of the vaccineThose over 45 years of age will also get Covid19 vaccine from April 1 irrespective of comorbiditiesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever