States claim wedding season, polls behind Covid spike: NITI Aayog member

NITI Aayog member (health) and chairperson of the National Task Force on Covid-19, V K Paul, said on Tuesday that the wedding season coinciding with elections in some states are few of the reasons behind the resurgence of Covid cases in some parts of India.

Paul said he got the information after taking inputs from various state governments, which engaged with the Centre deputed teams there to find out the probable causes behind the steady rise in the number of cases.

"People have gone lax on the Covid protocols. The reasons which the states have cited behind this laxity include crowding at wedding function and elections. Many states admitted this during the interaction with the teams deputed there," Paul said.

Notably, municipal elections and other local body polls have been conducted in Gujarat and few other states recently, while West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry are scheduled to go to the polls in March-April.

Wedding ceremonies also act as superspreaders of the disease since they attract a substantial crowd, often throwing social distancing norms to the wind.

The rise in the number of Covid cases has been witnessed in Gujarat, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Delhi, apart from Kerala and Maharashtra.