Social behaviour behind spike, not any mutation: CCMB chief

It is not any new mutated variant of SARS-Cov-2 causing COVID-19, leading to the latest spike in positive cases in many parts of the country but it is most likely due to the “social and behaviour laxity” of the general population, say top scientists involved in the battle against the pandemic for the past one year.

However, “if we continue to allow the virus to spread, new variants are likely to emerge and may lead to worse outcomes”, cautions CSIR-Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB) director Rakesh Mishra on Wednesday. “There is no evidence, so far, of any peculiar mutation or virus variant causing more infections and surge in the number of cases. While there could be multiple reasons, it is likely that new cases are caused by a dominant variant in a large number of people. So, the surge is not because of any particular variant,” he observes.