Maharashtra and Delhi both reported their highest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases with over 80,000 fresh infections between the two states. The worrying numbers come at a time the country is being battered by a more virulent and deadly second wave. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the current surge was “worse than when the pandemic was its peakâ€.
Delhi on Friday recorded 19,486 fresh Covid-19 cases and 141 deaths due to the disease. This is the fifth record daily rise in cases in the national capital in the last six days.
The positivity rate fell marginally to 19.69 per cent from Thursday’s 20.22 per cent, the highest so far. With the fresh cases, the national capital’s cumulative tally has risen to 8,03,623. The death toll stands at 11,793, according to the latest bulletin.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has directed officials to ensure that the beds shown on the Delhi Corona app are actually available in real-time at hospitals and create. He also said that efforts should be made to create more COVID care centres to increase the number of beds with oxygen facility. The directions were issued at a meeting to review the COVID-19 situation in the national capital.
Maharashtra, by far the worst-hit state in the entire country, logged 63,729 fresh coronavirus cases taking the tally past the 37-lakh mark, while 398 more patients succumbed to the infection, said a health department official. With 63,729 COVID new cases, the tally increased to 37,03,584, while 398 fatalities pushed the toll to 59,551, he said.
The state’s earlier highest one-day case count was 63,294, recorded on April 11, followed by 61,695 on April 15.
Mumbai recorded 8,803 new cases and 53 fatalities, taking the tally to 5,62,207 and the toll to 12,250. With 2,72,226 new tests, the number of samples tested so far in Maharashtra has gone up to 2,33,08,878, the official said.
Maharashtra’s COVID-19 recovery rate stood at 81.12 per cent, while the fatality rate was 1.61 per cent, the department said.
The Pune division saw 13,891 fresh infections and the Nagpur division registered 10,559 cases.
‘Covid-appropriate behaviour biggest tool to fight virus’
People have adopted a casual approach towards the COVID-19 pandemic which is very dangerous, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Friday and stressed that COVID appropriate behaviour is the biggest social tool to break the chain of transmission. He made the remarks after visiting the AIIMS Trauma Centre here to assess the healthcare infrastructure in view of the spike in COVID-19 cases.
Prime Minister Modi also took a comprehensive review to ensure adequate medical grade oxygen supply in the country and sought inputs from ministries like health, steel, road transport, and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). Modi stressed that it is important to ensure synergy across ministries and state governments.
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