COVID-19: Centre reveals reasons behind rise in coronavirus cases - Details here

Amid rising coronavirus COVID-19 cases across the country, a government panel has said that superspreader events like weddings and lowering of guards by people in following COVID-19 guidelines are responsible for the surge in COVID-19 cases in India.

According to the report submitted by the government panel, people were not following the COVID-19 guidelines properly and this is a major cause of the increase in coronavirus cases.

“That (role of superspreader events) is what it looks like, as people have become lax in their behaviour... We cannot afford to lower our guard at this stage, and should avoid mass gatherings as it can become superspreading events,” Dr VK Paul, member (health), Niti Aayog was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

According to Paul, it is necessary to break the chain of transmission to curb the spread of coronavirus and vaccine is one tool for this but we must not give up containment and surveillance strategy. "Not following COVID-19 behaviour and laxity is a major reason for the surge," he added.

Meanwhile, India recorded 43,846 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the official data of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The number of active cases in the country is now over  lakh. There were also 22,956 COVID-19 recoveries and 197 deaths on Saturday.

As per the official data, India has witnessed a total of 1,15,99,130 infections, of which, 3,09,087 are still active. More than 1.1 crore people have recovered, whereas, over 1.59 have succumbed to the virus.