(Image source from: newindianexpress.com)

India has been reporting over 70,000 cases per day recently and this increase in cases is attributed to rigorous testing and Unlocks in the country.

The surge in the coronavirus infections lately in India with nearly 70,000 cases in a day across the country, the ICMR has attributed this sudden spike in cases to increased testings and implementation of Unlocks in the country.

India has witnessed over 5 lakh cases in a week.

A record single-day spike of 78,761 on Sunday, India’s COVID-19 cases count reached 35,42,733 as on Sunday. The country has been reporting over 70,000 cases for the last four days.

Dr. Samiran Panda, the head of Epidemiology and Communicable diseases at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that this increase in cases was expected but pointed out that it is not a homogeneous phenomenon across the states.

Dr. Panda also said that this situation is happening in some areas and stretches where there is an intermixing of the susceptible population and asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic cases that are leading to the transmission of the disease.

He also said that testing has been ramped up exponentially which is leading to more cases getting detected.

Further, with the reopening of the economy in the country and the movement of people increasing in India, the surge in the COVID-19 cases is being detected.

Dr. Panda also stressed on the need for a sustained COVID-19 appropriate behavior by the people who have become complacent after the Unlock 1.0.

Leading virologist Shahid Jameel said that people are not following COVID-19 prevention advisories like wearing masks, hand sanitizing, and social distancing.

This complacency of people is driven by more recoveries and less mortality being reported by India which reduced the fear among people.

India is not only in the 3rd spot in the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world but also in the 3rd place in the highest number of deaths being reported by any country.

Though the mortality rate and recovery rate are the lowest in India, people must heed to the point that the number of cases is increasing each day.

Experts from ICMR say that people must follow respiratory etiquette and hand hygiene and the governments must ensure lower fatalities in their respective states.

Some of the experts are also saying that there is very less that state governments can do to curb the spread, instead the prevention will have to be an individual level now.

If this trend continues, experts predict that nobody can stop India from surpassing the US and Brazil and this could probably happen in 6 weeks.

Moreover, a record of 10.5 lakh tests has been conducted on Saturday which took the country’s cumulative test count to 414,61,636.

By Gayatri Yellayi