While maintaining that India’s current positivity rate suggests Covid pandemic is under control, the Union Health Ministry cautioned people about not taking the virus lightly after the vaccination programme has started and avoid large gatherings, parties, weddings etc. “These could be super spreading events,” warned Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog.
As Gujarat, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi, apart from Kerala and Maharashtra reports upstick in cases each passing day, Paul who is also the chairperson of the National Task Force on Covid-19, V K Paul, blamed on the wedding season coinciding with elections in some of them as a few of the reasons for the resurgence of infections.
Paul said he got the information after taking inputs from various State Governments, which engaged with the Centre deputed teams there to find out the probable causes behind the steady rise in the number of cases.
“People have gone lax on the Covid protocols. The reasons which the States have cited behind this laxity include crowding at wedding functions and elections. Many states admitted this during the interaction with the teams deputed there,” Paul said.
Notably, municipal elections and other local body polls have been conducted in Gujarat and few other states recently, while West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry are scheduled to go to the polls in March-April.
Wedding ceremonies also act as superspreaders of the disease since they attract a substantial crowd, often throwing social distancing norms to the wind.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said though certain states including Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are seeing a surge in number of Covid-19 active cases, “the fact remains that recovered cases are still more than 97 per cent and India’s active cases are less than 2 per cent (1.51 per cent)”.
He pointed out that, “According to the World Health Organisation, if 140 tests per million are being conducted per day and the case positivity rate is at 5% or below, it means the Covid-19 pandemic is under control. We are very close to that mark at 5.11% overall case positivity.”