New Delhi: The increasing mercury in northern part of India and humid conditions in places such as Maharashtra can again create havoc if people violate COVID-19 guidelines, health experts said on Tuesday. The health experts also cautioned that the current weather conditions in western India is conducive for COVID-19 transmission.

According to Harshal R Salve, Associate Professor at the Centre for Community Medicine, AIIMS, climatic factors such as ambient temperature and relative humidity are found to be responsible for increased transmission of COVID-19. “The current weather conditions in the country are conducive for Covid-19 transmission. This might be one of the factors for rising cases in these parts of the country,” Salve told IANS.

“Nonetheless, mask use, avoiding crowded places and accepting vaccination remain the key for Covid control in the country”, he added.

Registering a steady increase for the 20th day in a row, active cases have increased to 5,40,720, accounting for 4.47 per cent of the total infections in the country.

According to Manoj Goel, Director, Pulmonology, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, the pandemic has a tendency to come in waves of infection and possibly that could be the recent reason for the outbreak of the disease. “This is also largely related to more unrestricted social engagement of the people and not following Covid appropriate behaviour," Goel said.

States such as Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat continue to witness a sudden spurt of COVID-19 cases, accounting for 78.56 per cent of the new cases in the country. Maharashtra leads with more than 62 per cent of the active caseload in the country.

India reported 56,211 new COVID cases in the last 24 hours, 17 per cent lower than the day before, taking the total to 1,20,95,855 on Tuesday. Meanwhile, those over 45 years of age will also get COVID-19 vaccine from April 1, irrespective of comorbidities.