Celebrate festivals with caution, says Centre as India logs 46,164 new cases

New Delhi: Asserting that the Covid second wave was not yet over, the Central government on Thursday said the months of September and October would be crucial in pandemic management and cautioned that festivals should be celebrated in accordance with COVID-19-appropriate behaviour.

Addressing a media briefing, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan reiterated that the country is still in the midst of the second wave.

ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava said vaccines are disease-modifying and not disease preventing so it is very important to continue the use of masks even after vaccination.

Bhushan said: "We are still in the midst of the second surge of COVID-19 in our country. The second surge has not yet concluded. It is not over and therefore, we have to maintain all necessary precautions, particularly in light of our experience that after every festival we see a spike."

"The coming months of September and October are crucial for us because we would be celebrating a few festivals. Thus festivals have to be celebrated with Covid-appropriate behaviour," he stressed.

Bhargava said an upsurge is being witnessed in a few districts.

Meanwhile, reducing the gap between two doses of Covishield is being considered and will be discussed in the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation in India, official sources said on Thursday.

The Centre on Thursday told the Kerala High Court that the 84-day gap between two doses of Covishield was fixed to increase the efficacy of the vaccine, as recommended by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) and was also based on the technical inputs provided by the NTAGI. The submission was made before Justice P B Suresh Kumar, who had on August 24, asked the central government whether the 84-day gap between two doses of Covishield was based on the availability of the vaccine or its efficacy.

Chairman of India's COVID-19 Working Group of NTAGI, Dr N K Arora, however, said no such proposal for changing the dose interval for any COVID-19 vaccine is under consideration.

"There are several studies and programmatic data collection processes are on to assess the vaccine effectiveness. NTAGI is reviewing the vaccine effectiveness data on a regular basis. Currently, there is no proposal for change in the dose interval for Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V is under consideration," Arora said.

The government in May had further extended the gap between the two doses of Covishield from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks and said the decision to increase the gap was based on scientific evidence.

Based on emerging data, India would revisit the dosage interval for Covishield vaccine and take appropriate action, Arora had earlier said.

Bhargava, on the other hand, added: "We have 41 districts reporting a COVID-19 weekly positivity rate of more than 10 per cent and there are 27 districts which have weekly test positivity between 5 and 10 per cent.

Population density is causing the spread. So wherever Covid-appropriate behaviour is not being followed there we are seeing an upsurge in cases."

Highlighting the importance of vaccination, he said vaccines reduce the disease severity, reduce the possibility of hospitalisation and also avert deaths to the tune of nearly 98-99 per cent.

According to the government, daily new COVID-19 cases continue to show a decline and 58.4 per cent of the total cases last week were reported from Kerala.

Only one state, Kerala, has more than 1 lakh active cases, or 51.19 per cent of the countrywide number.

Kerala posted 30,007 fresh Covid cases on Thursday, the second consecutive day it reported more than 30,000, and 162 deaths which pushed the total infection count in the state to 39.13 lakh and the toll to 20,134.

With Kerala accounting for 68 per cent of the fresh COVID-19 cases in the country, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Thursday reviewed the situation and the steps taken to contain the alarming graph of the virus in the southern state.

Of the 46,164 fresh cases recorded in the country in the last 24 hours, 31,445 were in Kerala.

The Home Secretary reviewed the COVID-19 situation and the steps taken to contain the spread of the virus in the southern state and gave a number of suggestions, a Home Ministry official said.

The meeting in which Bhalla took stock of the situation in Kerala also discussed issues related to containment strategy and medical infrastructure, the official added.