With no let-up in the covid-19 cases which crossed the 22-lakh mark on Monday, health officials are now keeping their fingers crossed in view of the upcoming string of festivals like Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratras, Dussehra, Diwali and Chatth in the coming months.
The officials fear a further spike in cases during the people’s participation in these festivals.
For the last five days, in fact after Raksha Bandhan, a Hindu festival, which was on August 3, India has been reporting more novel Coronavirus infections than any other country in the world. On Saturday, India’s over 64,000 new infections comprised more than 22 per cent of all the cases detected globally, said an official from the Union Health Ministry.
He pointed out that while the United States and Brazil which have greater number of people infected by the virus till now, have been finding fewer number of new cases every day during this period, while India’s case numbers have been increasing steadily, with more than 60,000 new cases for the last three days.
Many Northern States like the Uttar Pradesh had allowed opening of sweet shops and those selling rakhis on Sunday in view of the Raksha Bandhan festival on Monday. Soon after, various parts of the Uttar Pradesh like Lucknow reported huge surge in the Covid-19 infection cases.
Now, with a series of festivals coming up in the next few months, which are celebrated across the country, we fear more cases on anvil, said the official.
“Though State Governments have been urging people to not to congregate at public places, but being major festivals many times citizens fail to adhere the norms of social distancing and visit the markets to purchase sweets and other items for prayers.
“We have also observed that people tend to visit their relatives during festival times as a ritual and do not follow mask wearing norms, thus leaving themselves vulnerable to the disease,” said the official.
For instance, if Ganesh Chaturthi is major festival in Maharasthra, Chatth Puja is celebrated with great fervour in Bihar. Similarly, Navratras is important fest in Gujarat. Hence, increase in cases in these States after these festivals cannot be ruled out, said the official.
Maharasthra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Karnataka and Bihar are the ten worst-affected states accounted for about 82 per cent of all the cases in the country, both in terms of total caseload, as well as new cases so far.
The number in India reached 22 lakh on Monday, and at this rate, India is poised to overtake Brazil within a month’s time. In the last three days, Brazil has been adding more than 50,000 new cases daily, but in India, everyday around 60,000 cases are being added up to the total tally, pointed out the official.