Experts fear thousands of new COVID cases, more deaths next week

A thousand cases of Covid-19 could be recorded daily by next week, Dr Vasant Rao Gujadhur, former director of public health services, has warned.

The surge, he argued, is due to the fact that sanitary measures are not being respected in public, “the beaches are crowded, even though the Delta variant is present in the community.”

Dr Soobaraj Sok Appadoo, Director of ENT Hospital, also forecasted a similar “dangerous surge”.

Some 374 people were fined Rs 2,000 for non-compliance with wearing face masks only on November 1 (public holiday), Defi Media reported.

While Dr Gujadhur also denounced a “trivialization” of COVID-19 by the authorities, the opposition and NGOs have also denounced the rising number of deaths among patients being urged to self-isolate.

The newspapers reported on a growing number of adults aged between 20 and 40 succumbing to COVID.

“There is fear that the number of deaths will rise as from next week,” the experts claimed.

Over the last two weeks, 35 deaths have officially been attributed to COVID-19.