A Health Ministry team discovered that approximately 10 to 20 pilgrims and 10 to 20 locals at the current Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, have tested positive for COVID-19. A rate like this had the potential to quickly turn into an ‘upsurge’ of cases.
The Uttarakhand government was also informed that the daily testing numbers reported in Haridwar, approximately 50,000 fast antigen tests and 5000 RT PCR tests, were insufficient given the anticipated number of pilgrims to the Kumbh Mela.
The delegation, headed by Sujeet Kumar Singh, Director of the National Centres of Disease Control (NCDC) in Delhi, visited Uttarakhand on March 16 and 17 to review the state’s medical and public health preparations for the festival.
On Sunday, Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, wrote to Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh, stressing the NCDC-led team’s fears.
The Uttarakhand government has been advised to “studiously follow” the Health Ministry’s guidelines, which include including display signboards, increasing awareness of self-reporting symptoms of cases suggestive of COVID-19, increasing testing, particularly in potential high transmission areas, and continuing periodic testing of frontline workers before and after key auspicious days of the year. If the number of cases increases, the state should “immediately send” samples for genome sequencing.
This morning, India added 43,846 new coronavirus infections, the largest daily total in nearly four months, amid a worrisome increase in Covid cases that has led states such as Punjab, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu to consider resuming school closures, limiting public meetings, and other virus-fighting measures, including lockdown in their hardest-hit districts.
According to data revised at 8 a.m., the daily increase in infections today was the largest in 112 days, while the number of deaths has climbed to 1,59,755, with 197 daily new fatalities.
According to government statistics, the five states with the largest single-day surge since yesterday are Maharashtra, Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka, and Gujarat.
