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New Delhi: The central government on Thursday said that the months of September and October will be crucial in pandemic management and cautioned that festivals should be observed as per COVID-19-appropriate behaviour.
Addressing a media briefing, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan reiterated that the country is still in the middle of a second wave.
ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava said that vaccines are disease-preventive and not disease-preventive, so it is very important to continue using masks even after vaccination.
Bhushan said, “We are still in the middle of the second surge of COVID-19 in our country. The second boom is not over yet. It is not over and hence, we have to maintain all necessary precautions, especially in light of our experience that after every festival we see a spike. “
“The coming months of September and October are important for us as we will be celebrating some festivals. Thus festivals should be celebrated with Covid-appropriate behaviour,” he said.
The government said 41 districts in India were reporting COVID-19 weekly positivity rates of more than 10%.
According to the government, 58.4% of the total COVID-19 cases were reported from Kerala last week.
“Kerala is the only state to report more than 1 lakh active COVID-19 cases, while four states have 10,000 to 1 lakh active cases and 31 states have less than 10,000 active cases,” it said.
The government said so far over 400 evacuees were brought back from Afghanistan and some of them have tested positive for COVID-19. The infected people have been isolated and are being treated.
With 46,164 people testing positive for the coronavirus infection in a day, the total number of COVID-19 cases in India rose to 3,25,58,530, according to data updated by the Union Health Ministry on Thursday. While the active cases increased to 3,33,725.
The death toll rose to 4,36,365 with 607 fresh deaths, according to the data updated at 8 am.
The ministry said that active cases comprise 1.03% of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.63%.
Read also: India’s R value falls further to 0.83, but metros see an increase in infections
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