Dr Randeep Guleria, Chairman of CII Public Health Council and former Director of All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have warned people to be cautious regarding the possibility of new variants of Covid-19 amid rising cases.

The former AIIMS director said that with people being vaccinated and having developed immunity against the virus, the virus is likely to mutate into new forms.

Dr Guleria said, “New variants of Covid-19 are expected which have the tendency to mutate. Situation is different now, earlier there was no vaccination but people are vaccinated now and have developed immunity against virus.”

The health expert further said, “If you're going out and especially if you are in crowded places, make sure to wear a mask. High-risk groups and elderly people should avoid going out because there are high chances of spreading the infection. The chances of hospitalisation and ICU admissions are however low.”

This comes after the central and state governments issued an advisory for safe practices during the festive season citing a surge in cases of the XBB variant in Maharashtra, and Omicron BF.7 and BQ.1 being detected in Gujarat and Pune respectively.