Centre worried over raising Covid cases in poll-bound states

"The number of active cases in Goa seven days ago was 2,763 which went up to 12,016 and similarly 2,686 active cases in Punjab increased up to 23,235 in last seven days," health ministry statistics in possession of ETV Bharat said.

New Delhi: A rapid rise in Covid19 cases in poll-bound states has raised major concern for the Union Health Ministry as Goa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and a few other non-poll-bound States have registered a drastic increase in the active cases.

As per health ministry statistics, Uttar Pradesh witnessed a 14.01x change in the number of active cases in the last seven days.

The poll-bound State has registered 3,173 active cases seven days ago which went up to 44,466 as of today.

Similarly, Goa and Punjab, the other two poll-bound States also witnessed a rapid change of 4.35x and 8.65x in a number of its active cases.

"The number of active cases in Goa seven days ago was 2,763 which went up to 12,016 and similarly 2,686 active cases in Punjab increased up to 23,235 in last seven days," health ministry statistics in possession of ETV Bharat said.

Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha are the three other States which has witnessed a rapid surge in positive cases.

Talking to ETV Bharat, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry said that the number of active cases is a matter of serious concern.

"We are in constant touch with the concerned State governments. We also do regular review meetings and suggest them to contain the spread of infection," said Agarwal.

However, the number of active cases is still increasing in spite of the fact that the health ministry always keeps guiding the States.

When contacted veteran health expert and director-general of the Association of Healthcare Providers (AHCP-India) Dr Giridhar Gyani said that the increasing number only shows that the States need to adopt more strict measures like local containment and Covid appropriate behavior.

"The same method of imposing local restrictions and other measures should be adopted at present, what we have seen last year," said Dr Gyani.

Experts said that Omicron is much more infectious and it spreads three times higher than its previous Delta variant.

Referring to the forthcoming Assembly elections, Dr Gyani said that all the political parties should be more responsible so that the situation does not worsen anymore.

"In spite of the fact that the central government keeps issuing suggestions in view of the current pandemic, we hardly see its adherence by the political parties," said Dr Gyani.

He cautioned that the rallies and campaigns in connection with the forthcoming Assembly election could be a super spreader for the virus.

At present, there are 19 States across India that have been registering more than 10,000 active cases.

Talking about the hospital infrastructure, Dr Gyani said that the mild nature of Omicron has not increased the demand for hospitalization.

"However, as this virus is known for changing its characteristics very frequently, we should be prepared with all kinds of hospital infrastructure," said Dr Gyani.

India's present active caseload stands at 11,17,531 with a total of 2,47,417 new cases reported from across the country in the last 24 hours.