Kumbh effect? Steep rise in Uttarakhand cases & toll

DEHRADUN: In the over one-month period between April 1 and May 7 — when the Maha Kumbh in Haridwar officially started and a week after the mega festival ended — Uttarakhand recorded 1.3 lakh new Covid-19 cases, which is over half of the state’s case tally till date. Equally, if not more worrying, is that between April 1 and May 7, the state recorded 1,713 Covid-19 deaths, which is half of the state’s total Covid-19 fatalities (3430) since the time the pandemic started in March last year.
In fact, in the one-week period after the Kumbh ended (May 1 to 7), as many as 806 deaths were recorded. The fact that both cases and deaths soared in the period during and after the Kumbh lends credence to the fears expressed by health-watchers of the festival being a super-spreader event. Dr Amit Singh, president Indian Medical Association (IMA) Dehradun told TOI that letting the guard down was a major reason for the infection spreading.
“In January, all of us had let our guard soon and started mass gatherings, religious fairs, marriages and other functions. This shouldn’t have happened, that too when we knew that Indian mutation of the virus had already started and it was in Uttarakhand as well,” he added.
Garima Dasauni, spokesperson of the state Congress said that the blame lay with the government for organising the Kumbh even as cases were rising.
“The two biggest reasons for this surge in cases and deaths in the untimely Kumbh and the very untimely change of guard which shouldn’t have happened when the CM was holding the post of health minister as well. The new CM hasn’t held any administrative posts before this and his mishandling of the Covid situation started on the day he took over when he announced a grand Kumbh with no restrictions on devotees,” said Dasauni.
Meanwhile, Uttarakhand witnessed its highest ever single-day Covid tally on Friday with 9642 fresh cases, taking the total tally to over 2.29 lakh.
In fact, Uttarakhand’s death figures are exceeding those of states which have higher positivity rates like Goa which had a positivity rate of over 50% on Thursday and recorded 58 deaths. In contrast, Uttarakhand with a 24% positivity rate recorded 151 deaths on Thursday and 137 deaths on Friday when the positivity rate touched 26 %.