'Covid cases rising in Bengal, Delhi': It could be due to puja festivities, say officials

NEW DELHI: Even as India on Tuesday recorded a three-month low in daily fresh Covid-19 cases, the Centre expressed worry at the rising case graph in West Bengal and Delhi.

The officials said the rise in cases could be due to the 10-day long Dussehra festivities which saw large gatherings have just ended and added that the true impact of the celebrations could be gauged only after the coming two weeks.  

At a briefing on the Covid-19 situation, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, “During the festive season, cases have increased in Kerala, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Delhi.”

In the last 24 hours, according to the data shared in the press conference, 49.4% of the 36,470 new cases were reported from Kerala, Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Delhi while 58% of the 488 deaths were reported from Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, and Karnataka.
 
Bhushan said the Centre this week would hold meetings with the five states witnessing rise in daily Covid graph.

The officials, however, added that there has been a continuous decline in average daily new Covid-19 deaths for the last five weeks. “India’s Covid-19 case fatality rate has declined from 1.77% on September 1 to 1.50% as of this date,” said the secretary.
 
Top functionaries of the government also stressed that there was no cause for complacency considering several other nations in Europe and the US are experiencing worse second waves than the first one.

“We are fortunate that we are witnessing a decline except in few states, this is more worthy as other nations continue to see severe second peaks, but we have to work harder to protect the gains,” said Dr V K Paul, member (health), Niti Aayog.

The recoveries in India have now crossed 72 lakh even as cases are above 79 lakh with the last 10 lakh recoveries registered in 13 days as against the first 10 lakh recoveries which took 57 days.

The pandemic is now concentrated in few states with 58% of the deaths (615) on Tuesday recorded in Maharashtra, Bengal, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, and Karnataka, showed the health ministry figures.