Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Saturday said that the festive season, decrease in temperature and increase in pollution levels were reasons behind the fresh spurt of coronavirus cases in the capital, reported ANI. Jain also said that people have started being ignorant about wearing masks.

The health minister’s comment came a day after Delhi reported 5,891 fresh cases of Covid-19 on Friday, marking the highest single-day spike for the Capital. The number of daily cases has gone past the 5,000-mark on four days this week. The coronavirus toll in Delhi went up by 47 to 6,470 on Friday.

“It is a combined effect of the festive season, decrease in temperature and increased pollution,” Jain told reporters, according to ANI. “The experts had also suggested that at this time Covid-19 cases could rise. People are also giving less importance to wearing face masks.”

Earlier this week, Delhi’s air quality index deteriorated to the “severe” category for the first time this year. Officials in the meteorological department, however, predicted improvement in air quality over the weekend. According to a study published in Cardiovascular Research, scientists estimated that about 15% of deaths worldwide from Covid-19 could be attributed to long-term exposure to air pollution.

On Thursday, Jain had said that the government was now going for a strategy of “aggressive tracing and testing”. Entire family and close contacts of even asymptomatic positive cases were being tested, Jain had said.

Meanwhile, the Union home ministry has called for a special review meeting with Delhi government officials in view of the spike in cases, Hindustan Times reported on Saturday. The meeting will be chaired by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, while Union health secretary and other senior central officials will also be present.