AHEAD OF MAHAKUMBH, COVID CASES JUMP IN HARIDWAR

RUDRAPUR: The number of new Covid-19 cases in Haridwar, where millions are gathering for the Mahakumbh pilgrimage, grew by over 250% in the last week compared to the first week of the month, and the test positivity rate on Friday was nearly three times of what it was on March 1, reinforcing fears that the gathering is fuelling a bigger outbreak.

Between 30 and 50 million pilgrims are expected to visit the shortened month-long festival in April. The first shahi snan (royal bath) that kicked off the festivities on March 11 was attended by over 3.3 million people. The next is on April 1. In the first week of the month, 78 new cases were recorded in Haridwar. In the past seven days, this number has grown to 278. But the number of daily tests has not logged any significant increase – there were 4,715 tests on Friday and a little under 4,000 on March 1.

On the first day of the month, only 16 cases were recorded, compared to 58 on Friday – a sharp increase in the positivity rate that is reflected over the week as well. As on Friday, Haridwar accounts for 385 active cases of total 1,162 in the state.

Officials in other states are now beginning to record infections in pilgrims who went to Haridwar. On Friday, eight people from one family tested positive for Covid-19 in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna district, according to Guna district magistrate Kumar Purushotam.

Chief medical officer Haridwar, Dr SK Jha said on Friday that given the expectation that up to 10 million pilgrims can arrive for the shahi snan on April 1, testing capacity is being increased and capacity to isolate pilgrims found positive is being strengthened. “Those with no negative Covid reports would be returned. And those found positive through random testing would be isolated. We have capacity to isolate over 10,000 people, with the help of private hospitals. The testing on normal days will be increased as per the pilgrim rush and on shahi snan days, it can go even beyond 50,000. For last four days, we have been conducting tests of 3,000 to 5,000 people,” Jha said.