India reported 42,982 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking the country’s tally to 3,18,12,114 since the pandemic broke out in January ...

India reported 42,982 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking the country’s tally to 3,18,12,114 since the pandemic broke out in January last year. The new cases are marginally higher than Wednesday’s count of 42,625.
The country’s toll rose by to 533 to 4,26,290. The active caseload increased to 4,11,076. As many as 3,09,74,748 patients have recovered from the disease so far.
The Centre has asked states and Union Territories to consider imposing local-level restrictions to stop mass gatherings during festivals such as Muharram, Onam, Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi and Durga Puja.
“The Indian Council of Medical Research and National Centre for Disease control have expressed concern regarding the mass gathering events during festivals turning into super spreader events,” said a letter by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also wrote a letter to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday about the surge of infections in the state, The Hindu reported. He claimed that a central multi-disciplinary team sent to Kerala found that there was no follow-up of home-isolation cases and that contact tracing of patients was “quite low”.
“In few of the districts like Thiruvananthapuram, less than two contacts are traced per positive case,” the letter said. “Usually, only household contacts are targeted.”
Kerala is the top contributor of new Covid-19 cases among all states. The...