UPDATED: May 10, 2021 20:30 IST WAR ON THE VIRUS: A makeshift Covid quarantine facility nside the indoor sports stadium in Srinagar (Adil Abbas/Getty Images) In 2020, Indian authorities widely used the T3 protocol (test, treat, track) in the battle against Covid-19. However, in 2021, none of the states most affected by the second wave appear to be following it, with mandatory quarantining also falling by the wayside. This is a major factor behind the rapid spread of cases in the second wave. The situation in Madhya Pradesh, for instance, is typical of what is taking place in most states. “The T3 protocol was deployed very effectively from April to August last year,” says a top official in the state government, asking not to be named. He says that these efforts began to slacken after August, and with no pressure from senior officials or political leaders to ensure that district collectors maintained it, contact tracing stopped across the state. This year, by the first week of April, the surge of cases left the state’s health infrastructure in tatters. “We need every hand on deck right now,” says an official from the health department. “We do not have the manpower to conduct contact tracing.” This is despite home ministry guidelines published on March 23 asking states to strictly adhere to the T3 protocol. Nonetheless, some state officials defend the suspension of tracing programmes. “We are testing aggressively, doing around 60,000 tests per day,” says Vishwas Sarang, MP’s medical education minister. “Contact tracing was the need of the hour when there was lesser awareness. Now, people come forward for testing themselves.”