New Delhi :Noting that the second wave is not over yet, the Centre on Thursday urged citizens to celebrate festivals in the coming month with caution. It also said that September and October is crucial in pandemic management.During a routine press conference regarding COVID-19 situation in the country, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan reiterated, “We are still in the midst of the second surge of COVID-19 in our country. The second surge has not yet concluded. It is not over and therefore, we have to maintain all necessary precautions, particularly in light of our experience that after every festival we see a spike.””The coming months of September and October are crucial for us because we would be celebrating a few festivals. Thus festivals have to be celebrated with Covid-appropriate behaviour,” he added.Adding to the thought, ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava warned that vaccines are disease modifying and not disease preventing so it is very important to continue the use of masks even after vaccination.Kerala last week reported 58.4% of the total cases reportedAt the press conference, the Centre also noted that 58.4 per cent of the total coronavirus cases in India last week were reported from Kerala.”Kerala is the only state reporting over 1 lakh active COVID-19 cases, while four states have 10,000 to 1 lakh active cases and 31 states have less than 10,000 active cases,” it said.The government said 41 districts in India were reporting a COVID-19 weekly positivity rate of more than 10 per cent.
