Infections in India hit two-month high after state festival in Kerala

NEW DELHI • India yesterday reported 46,759 new coronavirus infections, the most in nearly two months, as cases surged in Kerala state after a big festival.

The South Asian country's total Covid-19 cases reached nearly 32.7 million and deaths rose by 509 to 437,370 in 24 hours, government data showed.

Cases had fallen to a five-month-low of 25,166 in the middle of the month but rose sharply, mainly in the southern state of Kerala which recently held a large festival.

Kerala has accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the new coronavirus cases in the past week and more than half of the total active cases, followed by 16 per cent in the western state of Maharashtra.

"Any laxity in ensuring a strict adherence to the fivefold strategy of test-track-treat-vaccinate and ensuring Covid-19 appropriate behaviour, may result in a further surge in Covid-19 transmission in Kerala and its neighbouring states," the Health Ministry told the Kerala state government in a letter shared with journalists.

"More efforts would be required to arrest the increase in infections," the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement on Thursday after its secretary held a meeting with the two states.

"This would require adequate intervention in geographical areas having higher infection, through measures such as contact tracing, vaccination drives and Covid-appropriate behaviour."

The ministry also said the states had been asked to "explore the possibility of placing night curfew in areas of high positivity" and assured extra supplies of vaccines.

Kerala's apparent poor record may actually hold crucial lessons for containing the outbreak.

The state's reliance on rapid antigen tests to find and strictly isolate infected people at home is an approach federal officials have criticised but which state officials argue has helped them to better allocate hospital beds and oxygen supplies for those really in need.

The efficient detection rate and its population density at more than twice the national average explain the high number of cases in Kerala. All the same, at 0.5 per cent, Kerala has the lowest fatality rate among all but one thinly populated state.

Meanwhile, India has administered more than 10 million vaccine doses in the past 24 hours, a national record that Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a "momentous feat" for the country, ahead of fears of another surge in infections.

India has now administered about 628 million vaccine doses in total, giving at least one dose to more than half of its 944 million adults and the required two doses to 15 per cent.

The government wants the entire adult population covered by December.

"Record vaccination numbers today!" Mr Modi said on Twitter. "Crossing 1 crore (10 million) is a momentous feat." The previous daily record was 9.2 million.

The country's vaccine production has jumped this month, thanks mainly to the Serum Institute of India that is now making about 150 million doses a month of its version of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

REUTERS