India reported over 81,000 new Covid cases in 24 hours, the centre said Friday (Representational)
New Delhi:
The coronavirus situation in eleven states and union territories – which accounted for 90 per cent of new cases and 90.5 per cent of Covid-linked deaths reported this past fortnight – is of “grave concern”, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba told senior state/UT and police officials on Friday night.
The states and UTs where the Covid spike is particularly worrying are Maharashtra, Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi, which tonight reported its biggest single-day spike this year.
Of these, the Cabinet Secretary said, the situation was most serious in Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhattisgarh; together the three reported over 50,000 of the 81,466 new Covid cases that the centre this morning said had detected across India in the preceding 24 hours. Maharashtra (43,183), Punjab (3,161) and Gujarat (2,410) each also reported record single-day spikes.
State/UT officials were urged to ensure people follow protocols, including wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing while in public. The centre has repeatedly stressed on people’s laxity in this regard, and has identified flouting of rules as a key reason for the spike in new cases.
The Cabinet Secretary also asked states/UTs to ramp up testing (using the more reliable RT-PCR kits), ensure effective and prompt isolation of infected persons (whether at home or in institutions), and track and test at least 30 contacts of each Covid-positive individual.
They were also directed to increase the number of hospital beds, strengthen ambulance services to ensure that people can reach hospitals on time, and plan for a suitable number of necessary medical equipment – including ventilators and oxygen cylinders.
Mumbai and Delhi have ordered random Covid testing of people in public places (Representational)
The vaccination drive – which began January 16 and, on Thursday, was extended to all people over 45 – was also discussed, with officials asked to target 100 per cent of all eligible groups. Currently, frontline and healthcare workers, and everyone over 45 can get vaccinated.
There is no shortage of vaccines, the Cabinet Secretary stressed.
Another point raised was that Tier 2 and 3 cities were critical because the virus could spread from there to rural areas, where a sharp rise in cases could overwhelm weak health infrastructure.
Overall, the Cabinet Secretary said the rate of growth of new cases had jumped from 5.5 per cent in June last year to nearly seven per cent by the end of March this year.
That spike has been underlined by the fact that while India reported a maximum of around 97,000 cases per day during last year’s Covid peak, it is already at over 81,000 cases this year.
The worsening Covid situation could be due to a new strain of the virus, Dr Randeep Guleria, Director of Delhi’s AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences), told NDTV on Wednesday.
Last week the Health Secretary chaired a high-level meeting with 12 of the worst-affected states and UTs, and advised them to focus on “stringent containment and public health measures”.
The results of a study on public compliance to Covid protocols was also tabled; the study revealed that only 44 per cent of the people wear face masks when in public.