Health Ministry issues warning ahead of festive season, asks citizens to 'be alert for next three months'

Ahead of the festive season, the Health Ministry of India has issued a warning requesting people to take necessary precautions between October to December to curb the spread of coronavirus. 

Today marks the first day of the nine-day Navratri festival, kicking off the festival season for Hindus across India. Addressing the media, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary of the Health Ministry said, "Attend Durga Pooja and Ram Leela virtually. Meet your loved ones online on Diwali." 

He further added, "Masks will remain very important. Vaccination is a shield. Festival and wedding seasons convey victory of good over evil." 

The Ministry further spoke about how India has been successfully handling the COVID-19 crisis for the past few months. "The challenge of Covid has not ended yet. To some extent, we say that we haven't controlled the second wave of COVID. We need to make continuous efforts," Lav Agarwal said.

He also said that India has so far reported 3.39 crore COVID-19 cases to date of which 2.44 lakh cases are currently active. He said, "The overall positivity rate of the country was nearly at 1.68% last week as compared to that of 5.86% earlier."

Furthermore, the ministry also pointed out how states like Lakshadweep, Chandigarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar and Sikkim have been vaccinated 100% of its population with the first dose of vaccine.

Lav Agarwal also pointed out that despite a decrease in COVID-19 cases, some states like Kerala and Maharashtra have been the ones to contribute the most to the spread of the virus. He said, "There are 5 states - Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Karnataka which have over 10,000 active Covid cases. More than 50% of the total coronavirus cases in the country are from Kerala, 15.6% Maharashtra, 6.81% Tamil Nadu and 6.58% Mizoram."

He further added, "There are 28 districts, including a few in Arunachal Pradesh & Assam which have a case positivity rate between 5% & 10%, that is, high infection rate. There are 34 districts which are reporting a weekly positivity rate of over 10%"

On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched oxygen PSA plants in Rishikesh today. It consists of total 1,200 PSA plants that are functional in India and a full network of 4,000 PSA plants will be established across India soon.