About nine in 10 Indians know at least one person who was infected with Covid-19, finds a survey

With over 9 million cases, the pandemic appears to have made its way through the social circles of Indians.

Nearly 90% of Indians have reported knowing at least one person who has contracted Covid-19, according to a survey of over 9,000 respondents by community-led social media platform LocalCircles. Almost 20% of the respondents said they knew more than 20 people who had contracted the illness.

The number of people who responded to knowing at least one contact is significantly higher than it was in May when India was still largely under a stringent lockdown.

Now, with the festival season that began with Dussehra on October 25 and concluded with Diwali on November 14, cities like Delhi have been experiencing an unprecedented surge in the number of new coronavirus cases.

There is also a significant jump in the number of Indians who know five or more people in their social circle who have tested positive for the virus. With cooler temperatures and air pollution in the northern regions of India, the fear is that the Covid-19 numbers would only keep rising.

This article first appeared on Quartz.