Since the beginning of this month, Amravati district of Maharashtra has recorded alarming jumps in daily new coronavirus cases, becoming a new Covid-19 hotspot in the state. Fresh curbs were also imposed in the district in the wake of the rising number of cases. But, why is Amravati witnessing the maximum number of coronavirus cases? Dr Subhash Salunke, technical adviser to the Maharashtra Health Department spoke at length about his visit to the new hotspot.

Speaking to media, Dr Subhash Salunke said he recently visited both Amravati and Achalpur city in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.

Dr Salunke explained the three factors responsible for faster spread of coronavirus in the Vidarbha region -- the first factor is the virus, its structure, mutations and its capacity of transmission; the second factor is the person who gets infected and transmits it to others and third is the environment and weather.

"The coronavirus mutation has happened several times and the virus is infecting at a much faster pace as compared to the virus which was detected in the earlier stage i.e April, May, June and July 2020," Dr Salunke said.

Raising an alarm over the situation, Dr Salunke said that the virus is slowly getting transmitted to other districts like Pune and Mumbai.

"If immediate steps to control the spread are not taken, then the day is not far away when it can spread to other states in the country," Dr Subhash Salunke said.

However, Dr Salunke said the new Covid strains, detected in Amravati and Yavatmal districts of Maharashtra, are not responsible for the spike in cases in Maharashtra.

Dr Salunke said the Covid-19 vaccination drive in Maharashtra is certainly going to help in controlling the spread.

Dr Salunke said he was administered the second dose of the Covishield vaccine on Tuesday. Along with him, Divisional Commissioner Saurav Rao and the Commissioner Of Police Pune City Amitabh Gupta have also been given the coronavirus vaccine shot.

(With inputs from agencies)