India Covid Cases: 4,077 people died in the last 24 hours in the country.
New Delhi:
India logged 3.11 lakh fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours, taking the overall caseload to 2.46 crore. The country recorded 4,077 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of deaths to 2.7 lakh.
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India has been recording more than 1 lakh infections every day since April 5. While the country has seen a drop in Covid cases lately, nearly 40 lakh cases have been logged in the last 10 days alone.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held a high-level meeting to review India’s Covid situation. India’s testing capacity has increased significantly from around 50 lakh tests per week in early March to around 1.3 crore tests per week now, he was told.
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The Prime Minister suggested “localised containment strategies are the need of the hour specially for states where TPR (test positivity rate) is high”. He also told officials to ensure rural parts get supply of medical oxygen, states are not pressured to supress Covid figures and vaccination drive is ramped up.
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A two-week lockdown starts today in West Bengal. All offices and educational institutions will be shut down during this period; only emergency services will be allowed. The state recorded the highest daily Covid deaths on Saturday at 144.
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Oxygen concentrator banks have been set up in every district of Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday. Special teams will arrange delivery of the oxygen concentrators at doorstep of Covid patients under home isolation, he added. Delhi recorded nearly 6,500 infections in the last 24 hours, lowest in over a month.
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While Maharashtra has been witnessing a drop in Covid infections, the state saw 960 deaths in the last 24 hours. Mumbai, which has been praised for bringing its coronavirus numbers down in the last two weeks, reported 1,447 cases. Pune remains one of the worst-hit districts.
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Nearly 40 per cent of Covid-linked deaths in Punjab have been recorded in the last 44 days, news agency PTI reported. Punjab had reported a total of 6,868 deaths due to the infection as on March 31. The overall death count has now crossed the 11,000-mark. Ludhiana is one of the worst-hit districts in the state.
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Coronavirus vaccinations have practically come to a halt in Kashmir with many districts reporting zero doses administered on Saturday. Many states have said they’re running low on stocks. The government, however, has said nearly 200 crore doses will be arranged till the end of this year.
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Assam government on Saturday announced further restrictions in urban areas, banning movement of people and vehicles from 12 noon to 5 am to contain the spiralling COVID-19 cases.
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The first doses of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine were administered in India on Friday in a soft launch that is expected to be scaled up in the coming days. This is India’s third vaccine after Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Serum Institute’s Covaxin.