New Delhi:

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Monday night warned people against letting down their guard because of the rollout of coronavirus vaccines. He urged them to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour for “at least a few months” to stop the virus’ chain of transmission.

“People should not be complacent thinking that the vaccine is there and that cases are reducing. We can’t relax. We can’t forget about it at least for a few months,” Dr Vardhan told NDTV.

The cautionary note comes amid a spike in cases in a few states – most notably in Maharashtra, where over 6,300 infections were reported over the past 24 hour, and over 8,000 in each of the five previous days – and concerns over mutated strains of the virus spreading through India.

However, Dr Vardhan played down these fears, suggesting that data available at this stage indicated no link between the different strains and the increase in cases.

“The increase in the number of cases – in Maharashtra, Kerala or any other state – has nothing to do with the new Covid strains, either Brazilian, South African or from the UK,” he said, adding, “I am hopeful things are going to settle down and the recent spurt is not a permanent thing.”

Dr Vardhan also expressed happiness that a little over 29 lakh people had registered for vaccination on the first day of the second phase of the national drive.

He also suggested that number could, in fact, be over a crore since each person who had registered – either via the Aarogya Setu app or the CoWin (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network) website – could register for four others.

India began the second phase of the vaccination drive at 9 am today, with priority shifting from healthcare staff and frontline workers targeted in the first phase to people over 60 (and those over 45 but with co-morbidities).