The Central government on Friday expressed concerns over people travelling to hill stations in large numbers and violating COVID protocols. The govt also stressed that the COVID pandemic is not yet over in the country and that every person should continue to follow COVID-appropriate behaviour.

During a press briefing, the Union Health Ministry said that we need to take all the precautions and cited examples of Bangladesh, Russia and the United Kingdom where COVID-19 cases are seeing a sharp spike again.

“We are still dealing with the second wave of COVID19. We need to continue the display of COVID19 appropriate behaviour,” it added.

Niti Aayog, member-health, Dr VK Paul stressed, “We cannot lower our guard. A new risk is being seen at tourist spots where a gathering of crowds being seen, social distancing and mask protocol is not being followed. This is a serious cause of concern.”

He also iterated that guidelines on vaccination for pregnant women have been issued already and it is very important that they are inoculated

Talking about the ‘Lambda’ variant of COVID-19 virus, which has been identified in nearly 30 countries already, Dr VK Paul said, “Lambda variant of coronavirus is a variant of interest. We should be watchful of such variants. As of now, there is no evidence that this variant has been identified in India.”

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry also announced that the daily new cases in the country are continuing to show a decline. There has been a decline of 8 per cent in average daily new cases in the last week while 80 per cent of the new cases have been reported from 90 districts, he added.

“There has been a rise in recoveries in the country. The recovery rate is at 97.2 per cent today,” it said