As Maharashtra sounds alert over corona's Delta Plus variant, media spoke to state Covid Task Force member Dr Om Shrivastava to know what it means and what next.

On the question that is this a case of sounding the alarm too early or learning from mistakes. He said that the state agencies know from experience that there might be unpleasant surprises. So it's good to be watchful and see where it's headed before you can say there is nothing to be worried about. I don't think it's sounding the alarm too early, but we don't have all the information. And the information may take ten days or up to two months or more.

Whether there should be extended lockdown, he said that rather than jump into a process that you will find difficult to reverse, it's more judicious to wait for a little while, keep all players into confidence and unlock only when it's safe. It's better to err on the side of caution.

a pattern in what starts from Maharashtra spreads to other states? Is that the reason that you're extra cautious. And there is no way of predicting which areas will be affected next. In the second wave, we saw how it moved from Maharashtra to Rajasthan to Delhi. Nobody, no matter how brave, can hazard a guess. So it still makes a lot of sense to be careful about unlocking.

Whether Delta Plus may bypass vaccines. He said that  there are no enough evidence. Vaccination remains our surest bet.

(With inputs from agencies)