The Indian state of Goa has seen a COVID-19 positivity test rate of nearly 50% in recent weeks, according to CNN.
- “And that’s just among the people getting tested — meaning the rate of infection among the untested population may be higher,” CNN reports.
Goa saw its COVID-19 positivity rate hit 51.4% on Friday. Goa Health Minister Vishwajit P. Rane told CNN there should be a total lockdown in the state to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus in the area.
- “That is the need of the hour,” he said, according to CNN. “We have had issues of oxygen supply and other issues. We need to bring the positivity rate down. That’s the only way forward.”
India’s second COVID-19 wave
India has faced a new wave of coronavirus cases recently. People have been dying as the country has waited for more oxygen and medical supplies to keep them alive, according to BBC News.
- “The sky-rocketing COVID-19 infections are devastating India’s communities and hospitals. Everything is in short supply — intensive care unit beds, medicine, oxygen and ventilators. Bodies are piling up in morgues and crematoriums, and authorities have been forced to hold mass cremations at makeshift sites,” according to CNN.
Why did COVID-19 spike in India?
Experts aren’t completely sure why there has been a huge spike. As The Washington Post reports, the country was headed toward a peaceful reopening and a return to normal. But then the second wave of COVID-19 cases started. Researchers didn’t have enough time to figure out why it happened.
At the same time, India has had to fight off a “double-mutant” of the coronavirus, which has linked two different mutations together, as I wrote for the Deseret News.