The ongoing festive season has put the government on high alert as studies indicate that a single COVID-19 positive person can infect 406 people over a period of a month in the absence of preventive measures such as social distancing and lockdown.
The Centre has reached out to community leaders, who in turn have been convincing people to follow the lockdown guidelines and assist the government in the fight against COVID-19.
“A recent ICMR study shows that if one COVID-19 patient does not follow lockdown orders or practice social distancing, then the patient can infect 406 people in 30 days,” Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry, told reporters.
But, if lockdown instructions are followed then that infected person can pass on the infection to only 2.5 persons over a month, he said underlining the importance of social distancing.
Aggarwal said that a total of 326 infected people have recovered so far while the total number of positive cases climbed to 4,421 on Tuesday with 354 new cases and 8 deaths in the past 24 hours.
The cluster containment strategy and outbreak management plan is giving positive results in places like Noida, Bhilwara, Agra, Pathanamthitta and areas of East Delhi, which were marked as the hotspots, he said.
The health ministry official added that technology is being used successfully in smart cities like Pune, Surat, Bengaluru and Tumakuru for surveillance, tracking, management of home quarantine, predictive analysis using heat map and training of healthcare personnel.
On the upcoming festival season, Punya Salila Srivastava, Joint Secretary in the Union Home Ministry said community leaders had come forward and were convincing the people to assist the government in the strict implementation of the lockdown.
Festivals such as Ram Navami, Mahavir Jayanti, Palm Sunday saw muted celebrations across the country.