PTI has reported, quoting experts. It has also been emphasised by the experts that people not wearing face masks or taking booster vaccine doses may have caused the surge as unlike a wave, it is not equally distributed across regions. "A few states lead, others are not involved.
In those states, the phenomenon is mainly a big city picture, not widely spreading. This pattern is not a harbinger of a new wave but expected fluctuations during endemic prevalence," said noted virologist T Jacob John. "A wave must have more numbers than the previous day consistently – that is not the case for us now," he added.
He said people ignoring the safety protocols is the main reason behind the spike in cases. He also refuted claims that new variants are responsible for the surge. "Who gave the orders that people need not wear masks any longer?
Who advised that people should continue wearing masks in places where people assemble indoors? That one behaviour alone is sufficient to explain the gradual increase in cities," said John, a former director of the ICMR's Centre of Advanced Research in Virology.