The Ministry of Health has said the second wave of Covid-19 is not over in India yet, and that people must follow Covid-appropriate behaviour, especially during festivals.
The ministry officials said people should not stop wearing masks and stick to other Covid protocols even if they have been administered both doses of vaccine.
"The second surge of Covid-19 is still on and as we see, there is always a spike after festivals. So during the festivals in the upcoming month of September and October, we must celebrate them responsibly," Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on Thursday.
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He added that usage of masks and Covid protocols must continue even after vaccination. Balram Bhargava, Director-General at the Indian Council of Medical Research, said people should avoid attending mass gatherings during festivals. "However, double vaccination is a prerequisite for any mandatory mass gathering," Bhushan stated.
Meanwhile, Kerala is seeing an unprecedented rise in the Covid-19 cases. "Kerala has more than 1 lakh active cases. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu & Andhra Pradesh have 10,000 to 1 lakh active cases. Kerala contributes to 51%, Maharashtra 16% & rest of the three states contribute to 4-5% of the cases in the country," he noted.
As per the government data, 46.69 crore first doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in India so far. Around 13.70 crore people have received both doses.
Around 46,164 new Covid-19 cases were reported across the country in the last 24 hours, while 34,159 people recovered from the disease during the said period.
India's current active caseload stands at 3,33,725. While the recovery rate has improved to 97.63 per cent, the daily positivity rate stands at 2.58 per cent.
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