India should not lower its guard; Covid not over yet, says NK Arora

Even as Covid-19 cases continue to decline, NK Arora, chair of India's Covid working group, said that a guarded approach is still needed to avoid any crisis. He wants mask-wearing to continue. "It's premature to say that Covid is over. We need to be vigilant. There is a need to continue to adopt Covid-appropriate behaviour that we have done so far including wearing masks in the light of new Covid variants," Arora told ET.

Countries like the US and UK have seen a surge after relaxing curbs and experts say India should not make such mistakes, particularly as the threat of emergence of new variants looms large over the country. "Next 3-4 months are crucial and we need to be vigilant. We have suffered due to Covid and we can't keep our guard down as less is known about the virus," he said.

Gautam Menon, professor, departments of physics and biology, Ashoka University, thinks that chances of a resurgence of an Omicron wave are negligible.


"We are now in a position where we can consider relaxing most current restrictions. However, it is advisable to remain alert and to reinforce surveillance, so we can be prepared for new variant which might appear. This possibility, of course, cannot be predicted."

According to the official data shared by the ministry of health on Thursday, India recorded 1,033 new Covid-19 infections, taking the country's total tally to 43,031,958, while the active cases dipped to 11,639. The death toll climbed to 521,530 with 43 fresh fatalities. The ministry said active cases comprise 0.03% of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate remained at 98.76%.