It said that eight of the top 10 COVID-19 high-burden districts of the country are from Maharashtra and that Delhi, taken as one district, is also on the list.

At a press conference, NITI Aayog member (Health) V K Paul said, “COVID-19 situation is turning from bad to worse. In the last few weeks, especially in some states, it is a huge cause for worry. No state, no part of the country should be complacent. The whole country is potentially at risk and therefore all efforts to contain and save lives should be taken.” Hospitals and ICUs have to be readied. If cases increase rapidly, the healthcare system would be overwhelmed, Paul warned. He, however, denied that the mutated strains have a role to play in this surge.

Addressing a weekly press conference of the Union health ministry, ICMR Director-General Balram Bhargava also said of 11,064 genome samples sequenced in the country, the UK variant of the virus was detected in 807, the South African variant in 47 and the Brazilian variant was found in one. “Both Covishield and Covaxin- are effective against the UK and the Brazillian variants and the work against the South African variant is ongoing at several laboratories,” he said.