Modi warns India to keep its guard as Hindu festivals begin
As a billion people prepare for Dussehra and Diwali, concerns about pace of spread
In a televised address Tuesday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India urged his countrymen to tighten up their vigilance against the coronavirus as the Hindu festival season approaches.
“Recently, we saw many photos and videos which clearly proved that people have lowered their guard,” he said. “This isn’t right.” In the next few weeks, more than one billion Indians will celebrate several major Hindu holidays, including Dussehra and Diwali, and authorities are worried about people packing together.
India is rapidly catching up to the US in terms of reported infections, having almost 7.6 million known cases, compared with 8.2million in the US. India had been outpacing the United States in new daily infections, reaching nearly 100,000 in mid- September, but in recent days the number of new daily infections has come down.
As of the beginning of this week, the seven- day average for new daily cases in India was approximately 61,000, just slightly higher than the average over the same time in the US.
Some experts say that the decline in India suggests that the virus, after proliferating across rural areas, may finally be reaching a plateau. Others say the decrease could be explained by a shift in testing methods. Several experts say that India is increasingly using cheaper rapid antigen tests.
Cheaper antigen tests
These tests deliver fast results but have a higher chance of missing positive cases than the polymerase chain reaction ( PCR) tests that were more prevalent here a few months ago and are considered the gold standard of testing. Dr Anant Bhan, a health researcher at Yenepoya University in southern India, said that the downward trend was encouraging but that it required “more indepth examination.”
“A large number of tests which are being currently used are rapid antigen tests with high false negative rates,” Bhan said.
Growing beard
During the festival season, he said, “any laxity could mean the possibility of a spike in cases which could strain India’s health system.” Modi said the precautions taken by Indians since the pandemic started had left the country in a “stable” situation. “We must not let it deteriorate,” he warned.
Modi himself has been holed up in the primeminister’s compound in a leafy neighbourhood in New Delhi, and each time he appears on television, his white beard seems to have grown an inch or two longer.
7.6m
Cases in India and counting, as infections continue to spread
61,000
Is the seven- day daily average for new cases in India this week