What happened? India seemed to be dealing with the COVID outbreak in the country successfully, even relaxing some of the most stringent guidelines. Suddenly, the ugly monster reared its head with a headlong rush into overdrive. Pictures of mass cremations in India’s busiest city streets are appalling the world. Doctor Ajeet Jain at the Rajiv Gandhi Super hospital in Delhi expressed frustration at the relaxing of quarantine measures in big cities. He said, “The practice of sanitation has gone down, the social distancing is almost zero, mask-wearing is still going on but the rest of the things, physical distancing, is almost over.”

The country is seeing a lot of the UK variant as well as the B1617 variant, called the double mutation, and a lot of other mutations that apparently have the capacity to evade antibody responses. Some of these variants appear to be far more infectious than those responsible for the first surge of cases in the country. In such a populous country as India, these various factors seem to be catapulting the country into an overwhelming epidemic of COVID infections. Now, there are few individuals in India who do not intimately know someone with the disease.

Sources:

• India’s shocking surge in Covid cases follows baffling decline

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