Are weddings, parties causing spikes in COVID-19 cases in India? Centre thinks so

NEW DELHI:  The government on Tuesday again stressed that the marginal spike in Covid cases daily is not due to new variants and added that it could be because of super spreader events such as weddings. 

“The clearer picture will emerge once the central teams which have gone to the states return and share feedback but by talking to states, it looks like it is events like wedding and parties which may be fuelling the rise in cases,” said Dr V K Paul, member, health, Niti Aayog. 

No role of Covid mutation, through the genome sequencing efforts, has been established yet in the spikes in any of the states witnessing the rise in the daily caseload, he added. 

India’s Covid active caseload now consists of just 1.51 % of total positive cases and the recovery rate is over 97 %. Maharashtra and Kerala alone account for 67.84% of the total active cases.

“There has been a marginal increase in daily new cases in the last two weeks,” Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said at a press briefing. “Central teams have been deputed for Tamil Nadu and Punjab,” he added.

The total active caseload stood at 1,68,358 on Tuesday with 12,286 new cases in the last 24 hours.

Remarkably, 80.33% of the new cases are from five states. Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 6,397. It is followed by Kerala with 1,938 and Punjab with 633 new cases.

Meanwhile, Bhushan said that the test positivity rate in India is “under control.”

“According to the World Health Organisation, if 140 tests per million are being conducted per day and case positivity rate is at 5 per cent or below, it means the Covid-19 pandemic is under control. We are very close to that mark at 5.11 per cent overall case positivity,” he said at a press briefing.

Data show that six states and UTs have a weekly positivity rate higher than the national average of 2 per cent. Maharashtra leads all the states with a weekly positivity rate of more than 10 per cent.