With India registering 1,26,789 fresh Covid cases in 24 hours, setting another one-day record in battling the second wave of infections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday interacted with the Chief Ministers of states and Union Territories via video conference to take stock of the Covid-19 situation.
The Chief Ministers gave feedback about the Covid situation in their states. The total deaths shot up to 1,66,862 with 685 deaths in the last 24 hours. The total number of cases since the first recorded infection in India in January last year now stands at over 1.29 crore.
PM Modi said, “Instead of calling it a night curfew, we should call it ‘Corona curfew’. I want to appeal to all CMs to go for pro-active testing so that we can track asymptomatic patients.” He added, “April 11 is Jyotiba Phuleji’s birth anniversary and April 14 is Baba Saheb’s birth anniversary, in the meantime, let us all celebrate ‘Tika Utsav’.” Notably, PM Modi was administered the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine at AIIMS.
“Our emphasis should be on micro-containment zone, we have to keep the maximum focus on it,” the PM said at the meeting of Chief Ministers.
“The world has also accepted the night curfew. Curfew makes people remember that they are living in the age of corona. It is good that we promote night curfew as ‘Corona curfew’. This will not affect work too much,” the PM said.
Setting a target of 70 per cent RT-PCR tests for the states, the PM said this is the only way to identify and fight the virus. “Proactive testing is very important… Now more cases are asymptomatic. People feel that they have some mild pulmonary disease and then they infect the whole family,” he said, adding, “Testing and tracing is the most important thing right now and we have to bring the positivity rate below 5 per cent.”
The Prime Minister said that at least 30 contacts of a positive case must be traced, tested and quarantined, preferably within the first 72 hours. Similarly, boundaries of containment zone should be clear. The Prime Minister said that there should not be any relaxation in our efforts due to “Covid fatigue”. He also asked for adherence to the Health Ministry SoPs in containment zones. He also emphasized the need for comprehensive data on deaths with detailed analysis. He asked states to join webinars organized by AIIMs, Delhi, every Tuesday and Friday.
The Union Home Minister outlined efforts undertaken by the government in the battle against Covid. He also gave an overview of the progress in the vaccination drive in the country. The Union Health Secretary gave a presentation on the Covid situation in the country, focusing on states that are experiencing high caseload at present, and emphasized the need to increase testing in these states. He also shared details of vaccine production and supply in the country.
Meanwhile, Mumbai’s tally of daily Covid-19 cases went below the 10,000 mark in the last 24 hours. The city, which has been witnessing a spike in the number of Covid-19 cases, added 8,938 new infections in the last 24 hours. With this, the total caseload in Mumbai reached 4,91,698. The city also saw 4,503 people recover from the disease and 25 related fatalities. The total recoveries and death toll stood at 3,92,514 and 11,881.
Maharashtra, meanwhile, added 56,286 new cases to its tally and the total number of cases has now reached 3,229,547. Maharashtra is among 10 states which have shown a steep rise in the daily Covid-19 cases, the Union health ministry said. These states account for 84.21 per cent of the 1,26,789 new infections recorded by India.
The national capital saw the surge of 7,437 cases in its daily new Covid-19 infection tally, the highest daily count this year. Currently, Delhi has the fifth highest tally of Covid19 cases. The positivity rate has now shot up to 8.10 per cent. As many as 24 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours. The death toll in the city has reached 11,157. Uttar Pradesh reported a record-breaking surge of 8,490 fresh coronavirus cases in last 24 hours. Lucknow recorded an all-time high of 2369 Covid-19 infections, Prayagraj recorded 1040, Varanasi 794, Kanpur 368 and Gorakhpur 259 cases respectively.
Uttarakhand reported 787 new Covid-19 positive cases, pushing the tally to 1,05,498. Three more coronavirus patients succumbed in the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 1,744.
There was another highest single-day spike in Jammu and Kashmir. As many as 835 new positive cases were reported in the last 24 hours, 280 from the Jammu division and 555 from the Kashmir division.
WITH INPUTS FROM AGENCIES