Delhi’s
latest surge in COVID-19 cases has largely affected younger people with most
patients showing mild symptoms, AIIMS chief Dr Randeep Guleria told the Indian
Express. However, the virus can easily spread to elderly people and induce “serious
symptoms” he added, as he stressed on the need to stay vigilant.

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Guleria said that increasing the number of
containment zones in a city would be a better strategy to contain the spread than
imposing another lockdown.

“As of now, most of the patients who are
coming in are those with relatively milder symptoms but that is related to the
fact that currently we are witnessing a surge in cases in the younger age
group. But this will spread to the elderly, as has been seen in Maharashtra,
where it started with milder cases and then we found an increasing number of
cases, and more serious symptoms, with hospital resources getting strained. We
need to be vigilant about this,” he said.

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The current surge in cases is likely due to
a new variant, making the virus more infectious, Guleria told NDTV, adding that
the situation is exactly like the one reported in the UK around Christmas, when
the virus underwent a mutation.

While the government has maintained that there
is no evidence the spike is linked to a mutated variant of the virus, Guleria
said that “the fact that there is no data does not mean it is not happening”.

He also said that the COVID-19 vaccine
needs to be reached out to the people, which the government quashed. Potential adverse
effects of the vaccine are the primary reason why mass vaccination cannot be undertaken
now, the union health ministry has said.

Guleria said that the makers of the two
vaccines in India – Covishield by AstraZeneca and Oxford University
manufactured by Serum Institute in Pune, and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech – are looking
at shots that can be administered to children.

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Delhi has reported over 1,500 daily cases for
almost a week while Mumbai and Maharashtra have been reporting record numbers
for single-day spikes recently.  

Guleria said more aggressive enforcement of
COVID-appropriate behaviour, ramping up testing and tracking and developing clusters
of containment zones are the best bet on containing the spread.