India recorded a sharp surge of 81,466 new infections in the last 24 hours, taking the country’s overall caseload to 12,302,110. Maharashtra accounted for 47,827 of the new cases, a new high for the state. Chhattisgarh and Karnataka reported more than 4,000 cases each. Meanwhile, with 469 new deaths, the country’s death toll rose to 1.63 lakh.
Eleven states and Union Territories, marked as «states of grave concern» because of their rising daily Covid-19 cases, have not shown a commensurate increase in the enforcement of containment activities, the Centre said on Friday. Chairing a high-level review meeting with chief secretaries, Directors General of Police and health secretaries of all states and UTs, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba asked these states and UTs to take strict action to contain the contagion.
Maharashtra, which has been the worst-hit by Covid-19 so far, reported as many as 47,827 new cases in the last 24 hours, marking its highest since the pandemic spread to India in March 2020, and 202 deaths. CM Uddhav Thackeray said that there could be a shortage of healthcare infrastructure if the Covid-19 situation deteriorates in the state. He also stated that Maharashtra has administered 65 lakh Covid vaccine doses till now.
Delhi recorded 3,594 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the highest daily count this year, while 14 more people died due to the infection, taking the capital’s death toll to 11,050. The positivity rate also mounted to 4.11 from the 3.57 percent recorded a day before, amid the massive surge in cases which has taken place in the span of the past few weeks. However, even as Covid-19 cases continue to rise in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that his government has not yet taken a decision to impose a lockdown on the city. «Not considering imposing lockdown. If such need arises, will consult people of Delhi first,» he said.
The neighbouring Uttar Pradesh reported 2,967 new cases in a 24-hour period. Lucknow recorded the highest numbers with 947 cases and 9 fatalities. The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered the closing of all schools, both government and private, for students of classes 1 through 8 till April 11.
Madhya Pradesh reported 2,777 Covid-19 cases, taking its infection tally to 3,00,834, while the day also saw 16 deaths and 1,482 people getting discharged. The toll in the state is 4,014 and the recovery count is 2,77,484.
Andhra Pradesh reported 1,288 fresh cases of Covid-19, 610 recoveries and five deaths in the last 24 hours. The state till now has recorded a total of 9,04,548 cases, 8,88,508 recoveries and 7,225 deaths. Its active caseload has gone up to 8,815.
The surge in Covid-19 cases continued in Karnataka too, with the state logging 4,991 cases, the bulk of it from Bengaluru, pushing the caseload to just over 10 lakh. Six deaths took the state’s toll to 12,591. Bengaluru alone accounted for 3,509 cases and five deaths. The day also saw 1,631 patients getting discharged after recovery. A total of over 2.16 crore samples have been tested so far.