India has reported nearly 1.2 crore COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in December last year (File)
New Delhi:
The Health Ministry on Friday rushed high-level multidisciplinary teams to Chhattisgarh and Chandigarh to deal with an alarming spike in coronavirus cases at both places.
The ministry said the teams – consisting of senior doctors from the NCDC (National Centre for Disease Control), AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) and Delhi government hospitals – will analyse available data and recommend control and containment measures.
“The deployed teams shall visit most affected districts/hotspots… to take stock of on-ground implementation of public health interventions. They will share key findings, recommendations and remedial measures to be taken up with the chief secretary/chief administrator,” the ministry said.
The reports of these teams will be shared with the states for follow-up action, and compliance with this follow-up will be monitored, the ministry added in its statement.
Chandigarh reported 226 new Covid cases on Thursday. The city, which has reported over 25,000 cases in total, detected 249 new infections on Wednesday – which was a single-day high.
Chhattisgarh logged 2,419 new cases on Thursday – the most in 24 hours in nearly four months. On Wednesday 2,106 cases were detected.
Earlier this month the centre also sent teams to Maharashtra and Punjab.
Maharashtra reported 35,952 cases on Thursday and is the worst-affected state. It has an active caseload of over 2.64 lakh cases. Punjab reported 2,661 cases and has over 21,000 active cases.
Across India the number of new Covid cases reported per day has been increasing steadily.
This morning over 59,000 new cases were reported – the biggest single-day spike in since mid-October. The active caseload has now crossed four lakh, with 4.21 registered across the country.
Concern over a possible second wave of infections has been fueled by the discovery of a “double mutated” strain of the coronavirus, in addition to other mutated versions.
The government has said it is too early to confirm if the spike is because of the mutated strains. Instead, it has flagged a growing laxity in adhering to Covid protocols as a reason for the increase.
The centre has written to states and union territories, urging them to ensure that people used face masks when outdoors, practiced social distancing and followed all required measures.
Faced with an increase in cases, some cities and states – Mumbai, Haryana and Delhi among them – have banned celebration of Holi, and issued stricter guidelines.
The spike in cases also comes ahead of Assembly elections in four states and the Union Territory of Puducherry. Bengal and Assam kick off this round of elections on Saturday.
From April 1 everybody over 45 can get vaccinated. Until then, only frontline and healthcare workers, people over 60 and those over 45 but with co-morbidities can get the shot.
With input from ANI