The Covid-19 pandemic in India touched yet another landmark on Friday with the total confirmed cases crossing 90 lakh in the last 24 hours. It also saw the number of new cases surpassing the number of recoveries for first time in 1.5 months, indicating that many States — particularly those in North and Central India — are in the grip of a yet another surge.
Delhi, with over 7,500 fresh Covid-19 cases, topped among the States reporting higher cases. The total number of people that tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours was 45,882. During the same period, 44,807 people recovered while 584 new deaths were reported.
There are around 4.44 lakh active Covid-19 cases in India while over 84.28 lakh people recovered from the infection. The death toll from the infection so far is 1,32,162.
The Centre has seized of the gravity of situation when it rushed high-level teams to four States — Haryana, Gujarat, Manipur and Rajasthan — which are of late reporting a rise in Covid-19 cases.
While Vinod K Paul, Member NITI Aayog (Health), is leading a three-member expert team to Rajasthan, AIIMS director Randeep Guleria leads the team heading for Haryana.
Similarly, the team visiting Gujarat is headed by Surjit Singh, director of the National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi. The charge of the team going to Manipur is given to L Swasticharan, additional DG at the Directorate General of Health Services.
The teams will visit the districts that are reporting high number of Covid-19 cases and support the respective State’s efforts towards strengthening containment, surveillance, testing, infection prevention and control measures, and efficient clinical management of the positive cases.