New Delhi, March 31 As the number of positive coronavirus cases witnessed a spike on Tuesday, the government said that it was due to "lack of support in some locations", possibly hinting at the outbreak seen in Nizamuddin Markaz in the national capital where thousands of people are now being traced.
Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Lav Agarwal, said on Tuesday that 227 new cases of coronavirus and three deaths have been reported in India in the last 24 hours.
He added that the sharp increase in cases is because of "lack of support by people in some locations". India had reported 92 new coronavirus cases and four deaths on Monday.
Agarwal said there was lack of support in some locations and information were not being passed on or being passed on late which has led to this high number of cases in a single day.
He added that a lapse by a single person can cause grave damage by resulting in multiple transmissions.
Agarwal said the fight against Covid-19 is a collective exercise and everybody should cooperate in following the guidelines and maintaining social dsiatncing.
He said the Health Ministry, along with the states, is carrying out contact tracing so that suspected cases can be isolated as per the protocol with respect of positive cases.
The outbreak in the Nizamuddin area has led to 24 positive cases alone in Delhi while many others have been reported positive in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and other states. This single event may have caused the sharp spike in cases seen since yesterday.
As per information, nearly 1,800 people had assembled at the Markaz building in Nizamuddin for a religious congregation earlier in the month, of which a total of 1,033 people have been evacuated so far. Of these, 334 persons have been sent to hospitals and 700 have been sent to quarantine centres. Twenty-four cases have been found to be positive for coronavirus so far.
( With inputs from IANS )