Fresh wave of COVID-19 looms large in India as cases rise sharply

The number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths per day in India have risen sharply over the past few days, reaching the highest so far this year and throwing up a challenge of a new pandemic wave in the country.

On March 9 India registered over 15,000 new cases and 77 deaths, while as many as 25,320 new cases and 161 deaths were recorded during the past 24 hours.

Till a couple of months ago the number of daily COVID-19 cases had come down drastically, as nearly 9,100 new cases were reported on Jan. 25-26, which was the lowest in the previous 237 days. Prior to that the lowest number of 9,304 new cases was registered on June 4, 2020.

Randeep Guleria, director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), a Delhi-based health institute, said a lockdown-like situation might arise soon in India as the COVID-19 graph is once again looking northwards over the past few days.

"It seems people became complacent after vaccines were developed in India and the vaccination drive launched in January this year. People stopped following COVID-19 precautions like maintaining social distancing, wearing face masks, and washing their hands regularly. I appeal to the general public to strictly follow COVID-19 norms," he said in an interview with a Hindi TV channel on Saturday.

According to him, if the present circumstances continue, 'there might be a lockdown-like situation in the country soon in order to prevent further spread of the virus'.

The southwestern state of Maharashtra, which has been the worst-affected state over the past one year, has emerged as a new hot spot. In the past 24 hours, the country witnessed a rise of 8,522 active cases out of which Maharashtra alone witnessed an increase of 8,047 active cases, followed by the northern state of Punjab which saw an increase of 464 active cases.

Amid fears of another COVID-19 wave looming large in India, hordes of people were seen taking a holy dip in river Ganga in the northern town of Haridwar on the occasion of a festival days ago, without any COVID-19 norms.

Millions of people, both men and women, are expected to visit the town for the holy dip next month.

As on Sunday, India's COVID-19 total tally reached 11,359,048 with an increase of 25,320 new cases, while the death toll stood at 158,607 with 161 new deaths over the past 24 hours.

With the rising COVID-19 trend in the country, new Containment Zones are being announced in a bid to contain the spread of virus. As many as 14 new Containment Zones were declared in Gurugram, a city adjoining the national capital Delhi, where a steady increase in the number of cases has been witnessed over past few days.