India Sees Surge in Coronavirus Cases After Celebrating Harvest Festival of Onam

Percussion artists playing thavil, a traditional drum, walk ahead of a caparisoned elephant carrying an idol of a deity during the Onam festival in Kochi, Kerala [RS Iyer/AP]

India has logged 46,164 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, with experts saying festival celebrations in the southern state of Kerala were behind the whopping increase in infections.

It was the first time since July 7 that the country’s single-day infections went past the 45,000 mark, coronavirus data on the Johns Hopkins University’s website showed on Thursday.

The fresh cases were almost 45 percent higher than Tuesday’s 25,467 infections.

Kerala reported 31,445 cases, accounting for more than 68 percent of India’s infections on Thursday.

Analysis of cases and testing data suggested that lower restrictions during the traditional harvest festival of Onam on August 21 proved a setback to COVID-19 management, reversing the declining trend in the region, the Times of India newspaper reported.

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SOURCE: Aljazeera