- The meeting, on 8 April, will be held via videoconferencing
- PM Modi will discuss the latest surge in Covid-19 cases in several states.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting with chief ministers of all states to take stock of the coronavirus situation in the country. PM Modi will also address the vaccination-related issues against Covid-19.
The meeting, on 8 April, will be held via videoconferencing. PM Modi will discuss the latest surge in Covid-19 cases in several states.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan will also chair a meeting with health ministers of 11 states and Union Territories tomorrow.
8 states account for over 81% of new Covid cases
Eight states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab have shown a steep rise in daily Covid-19 cases, accounting for 81.90% of the 1,03,558 new infections reported in a span of 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry has said.
Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 57,074 (55.11%). It is followed by Chhattisgarh with 5,250 while Karnataka reported 4,553 new cases, it said.
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Punjab cumulatively account for 75.88% of the total active cases in the country. Maharashtra alone accounts for nearly 58.23% of the total active caseload of the country, the ministry said.
India reports record rise in Covid infections
Meanwhile, India reported a record rise in Covid infections today, becoming the second country after the United States to post over 100,000 fresh infections in a day, as politicians stage massive election rallies raising fears of further spreading the deadly virus.
India’s total active caseload has reached 7,41,830 and now comprises 5.89% of the country’s total infections, the data stated.
Hospitals in the worst affected state, Maharashtra, are being overrun by patients. India’s richest state, home to its commercial capital Mumbai and numerous industries, reported a record 57,074 new cases overnight.
The country’s daily infections have risen about 12 fold since hitting a multi-month low in early February when authorities eased most restrictions and people largely stopped wearing face masks and following social distancing.
With 103,558 new infections, the country has now reported 12.6 million cases, the highest after the United States and Brazil, data from the health ministry showed. Deaths jumped by 478, still one of the lowest fatality rates in the world, raising the total to 165,101.
India has recorded the most number of infections in the past week anywhere in the world. More infectious variants of the virus may have played a role in the second surge, some epidemiologists say.
“The new variant, or variants of concern, probably explains a lot of it, rather than simplistic explanation of behaviour,” said Rajib Dasgupta, head of the Centre of Social Medicine & Community Health in New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.
India has found hundreds of cases of the virus variants first detected in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil.
