Almost all five states now in the middle of the electoral process have seen a doubling of the number of Covid-19-positive cases over the past fortnight. Some of them, like Assam and West Bengal, saw campaigning even before the Election Commission announced the schedule on February 26. Once the dates were declares, it has been a no-holds barred outing for political parties with the Covid-19 protocol barely followed during rallies and marches. The result is that they have witnessed an over 300% increase in fresh cases in the past 14 days.
