industry

Coronavirus: Active cases remain low, but it’s no time to lower guard


New Delhi | Mumbai: Delhi, West Bengal, Kerala continue to see a surge in Covid-19 cases while other large states maintain a drop in numbers even as winter and the festive season remain a threat.

The number of active cases in the country stayed below 600,000 mark for the last seven consecutive day, dropping to 527,962 as on Thursday.

Active cases are now only 6.31% of the total positive cases of the country. While 10 states account for 78% of the total active cases in the country, Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi and West Bengal together account for more than 51%, according to data from the health ministry.

Maharashtra accounts for 21.53% active cases, followed by Kerala with 16.12%, Delhi with 7.08% and West Bengal with 6.8%, the data showed.

“States like Delhi, Kerala and West Bengal, are seeing arise in cases,” a senior health ministry official said. On Tuesday, while Kerala had 86,792 active cases, up from 77,564 a month ago, West Bengal saw the number jump from 26,865 to 36,576 during the same period.

“States such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh, however, had shown a drop in the number of cases,” the official said.

Health ministry officials emphasised that though active cases had been declining over the past few weeks, threat remains as the gains made can be lost over the next few weeks of festive season – unless people avoided crowds, especially indoors, and wore masks.

Public health experts said the next one month is crucial as upcoming festivities spawns fear of renewed coronavirus cases. “Elaborate rituals have to be scaled down though India has so far maintained steady decline,” said a health expert who requested not to be identified.

“Onam led to an increase in cases in Kerala; the same can be witnessed in other places too, if virus-appropriate behaviour is not followed,” the person warned. Diwali, perhaps the biggest festival in the country, is on November 14.





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