Kerala only state to report surge

NEW DELHI: India’s daily count of new Covid-19 cases again crossed the 40,000 mark, driven by a rapid surge in positive cases in Kerala – which alone accounted for over 68% of total 46,164 new cases detected across the country on Wednesday.

Kerala - accounting for 58.4% of total Covid-19 cases last week - is the only state reporting a surge in new Covid-19 cases, even as all other states are showing a declining trend with overall weekly positivity rate below 3% for eight consecutive weeks.

It is also the only state with more than 1 lakh active cases at present. With over 1.70 lakh active cases, Kerala alone has more than 51% of country’s total 3.33 lakh active caseload at present.

Worried over the surge in Kerala coupled with upcoming festivities, the Centre said the second wave of Covid-19 has not yet concluded and months of September-October will be crucial.

The home ministry on Thursday reviewed the steps being taken by the state government to check the high rate of infections. The meeting, chaired by home secretary Ajay Bhalla via video conferencing, also took stock of the Covid-19 situation in Maharashtra.

During the meeting, the home secretary sought adequate intervention in geographical areas having higher infection with measures such as contact tracing, vaccination drives and strict adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour. Bhalla suggested that the governments in Kerala and Maharashtra explore the option of placing areas with high case positivity under night curfew.

Calling for maintenance of pace of the vaccination programme, the home ministry offered to provide more vaccines if required, while at the same time insisting on the two states consuming all the vaccine doses received.

The Centre urged states to ensure Covid-appropropriate norms are followed, while underlining vaccination as a pre-requisite for attending any public gathering that is critical.

“We are still in the midst of the second surge of Covid-19 in our country. The second surge has not yet concluded. It is not over and therefore, we have to maintain all necessary precautions, particularly in light of our experience that after every festival we see a spike,” health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said.

“The coming months of September and October are crucial for us because we would be celebrating a few festivals. Thus festivals have to be celebrated with Covid-appropriate behaviour,” Bhushan said.

Officials also underlined the importance of using mask even after receiving two doses of vaccination.

“Population density is causing the spread. Wherever Covid-appropriate behaviour is not observed, we are seeing a surge in cases. We know that these vaccines are disease modifying vaccines and not disease preventable vaccines, and therefore, it is very important to continue to use the mask even after vaccination with one or two doses,” the Indian Council of Medical Research director general Balram Bhargava said.

Ramped up testing in areas with positivity rates on the higher side and focus on suppressing the levels of transmission of the virus to effectively control the chain of transmission, were the other key measures stressed upon by the Centre for turning around the Covid-19 situation, particularly in Kerala.

The meeting with the home secretary on Thursday was attended by Dr V K Paul, member (health), NITI Aayog; secretary, ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW); Director, National Centre for Communicable Disease (NCDC)and the chief secretaries and DGPs of Kerala and Maharashtra.

Though new cases of Covid-19 have come down in most parts of the country, there are still localised clusters with high positivity rate. To ensure that these cases do not spread further and are contained locally, the Centre has been insiting on imposing stringent curbs in localised areas or identified districts with large number of cases.

Currently, 41 districts across the country have weekly positivity rate of more than 10%.