Decoding India’s COVID Surge, New Variants With Dr RR Gangakhedkar

Dr Gangakhedkar was the former head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at Indian Council of Medical Research.

India on 1 March reported 15,150 new COVID-19 cases and 106 deaths in the last 24 hours, raising the active cases number to 1,68,627.

(Photo: The Quint)

The two big headlines on 1 March 2021 were: First, the Indian government began its second phase of vaccinations against COVID-19, with people above the age of 60 years and those above 45 with comorbidities now eligible to get the vaccine

Second, and the more worrying one, is the slow and steady resurgence of COVID-19 cases across six states in India over just the last two weeks, raising concerns of a possible new wave.

India on 1 March reported 15,150 new COVID-19 cases and 106 deaths in the last 24 hours, raising the active cases number to 1,68,627.

Maharashtra, the state which has reported the highest new cases so far, is slowly inching back to its worst phases of COVID cases last year. The state reported 8,293 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, more than half of the total cases reported nationally.

In previous episodes, we have discussed in detail with experts about the spike in cases in Maharashtra and also how to register for vaccinations in the second phase.

For today’s episode, we had the opportunity to speak to Dr RR Gangakhedkar, who is former head of epidemiology and communicable diseases, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) – and was the face of the health body in the initial months of the pandemic – on what is causing the rise in cases in India, about the new indigenous COVID variants discovered and how concerned should we be.