A single-day record peak of 78,761 cases brought India’s Covid-19 count to 35,42,733, on Sunday, according to data from the Union Ministry of Health updated at 8 a.m. The country has registered more than 70,000 cases during the last four days.
Dr Samiran Panda, Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), said this increase in cases was expected, but noted that it is not a homogeneous phenomenon across states.
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“It is occurring in some foci and between groups where there is a mixture of susceptible population and asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic cases that is leading to transmission of the disease. Therefore, efforts must be made to interrupt this transmission in these foci,” Dr. Panda said.
In addition, testing has increased exponentially, leading to more cases being detected, he said.
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“In addition, with the opening of the economy and the increase in the movement of people, there is a certain complacency among the people towards monitoring appropriate Covid behavior, which is also contributing to the increase in cases,” Panda told emphasize the need for appropriate Covid-19 Behavior.
Lead virologist Shahid Jameel said people don’t follow warnings about wearing masks, hand hygiene, and social distancing.
“This is driven by a complacency that results from the official narrative that only speaks of a greater recovery and a low mortality rate. The fact is that we are producing the highest daily figures. We are now third in total infections and we will be in the third also in total deaths, “he said.
Experts underscored that the way forward is for people to follow Covid appropriateness, including wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing, hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette in a sustained manner, while the government must focus on prevent deaths.
Dr KK Aggarwal, President of the Confederation of Asian and Oceania Medical Associations (CMAAO) and former head of the IMA, said: “There is no way that government efforts can control the number of cases at this stage.”
He stressed that prevention will now have to be at the individual level.
“If this current trend continues, no one can stop India from crossing Brazil and the United States (in the number of cases). That would probably happen in six weeks. There is no way that we can verify the number of cases through government efforts. Now , prevention will have to be an individual effort.
“The openness (of the economy) will lead to an increase in cases. The lockdown period was to prepare and sensitize people on how to avoid getting infected. What is most important now is to control mortality. So the efforts The government should focus on reducing mortality, “said Aggarwal.
India has registered 63,498 deaths related to Covid-19 as of Sunday and 948 people succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours, according to data from the Union Ministry of Health.
According to government sources, a record 10.5 lakhs of tests for the detection of Covid-19 were conducted on Saturday, bringing India’s cumulative tests to 4,14,61,636. India’s Covid-19 positivity rate to date at 7.50 percent.
The number of recoveries has increased to 27,13,933, bringing the recovery rate to 76.61%, while the mortality rate has decreased to 1.79%.
The Health Ministry said on Saturday: “The global comparison showed that India has one of the lowest cases per million (2,424) and deaths per million (44) compared to the world average of 3,161 and 107.2 respectively.”
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