LEAD

The second wave of coronavirus pandemic continued to wreak havoc in India after Delhi and Mumbai registered another record spike in fresh cases. While the national capital reported 8,521 fresh cases, its biggest single-day spike this year, Maharashtra saw a surge of 58,993 cases.

Releasing the data, the Delhi Health Department said that 39 fatalities were reported during the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 11,196. It said that Delhi has 26,631 active COVID-19 cases while the recovery rate stands at 96.46 per cent as 6.68 lakh people have recovered from the infection.

Similarly, the Maharashtra Health Department said that 301 fatalities on Friday pushed the death toll to 57,329. It said that Maharashtra has a recovery rate of 81.95 per cent as 26.95 lakh COVID-19 patients have recovered from the infection. Currently, Maharashtra has 5.34 lakh active coronavirus cases, the state health department said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that there is a need to impose micro-containment zones in areas where Covid-19 cases are rising, as he held a meeting with chief ministers to take stock of the situation in the country and ongoing vaccination programme. He also said that India has in the past successfully brought down the peak of Covid-19 cases and it can be done again.

PM Modi reminded the chief ministers that India was able to successfully bring the Covid-19 wave down last year without any vaccine.

"Test, track and treat remains an effective strategy to check the spread of the disease," PM Modi said while addressing the chief ministers, calling the situation in the country challenging. He said this should be particularly followed in containment zones.

India has become the fastest Covid-19 vaccinating country in the world with a daily average of 30,93,861 vaccine doses, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday. With this, India has surpassed the US which is vaccinating 30.93 lakh people per day on an average.

According to the ministry, the cumulative number of coronavirus vaccine doses administered in India so far has crossed 8.70 crore on Day 81 of the vaccination drive that was launched on January 16, nearly a month after it was in the US till April 6, India had administered 33,37,601 vaccine doses to the beneficiaries.

A total of 8,70,77,474 vaccine doses have been administered so far in India through 13,32,130 sessions. These include 89,63,724 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have taken the first dose and 53,94,913 HCWs who have taken the second dose. As many 97,36,629 frontline workers have taken the first dose, while 43,12,826 of them have been administered the second shot.

The Union Health Ministry today said that the recent spike in coronavirus cases in India is spreading faster in the country compared to last year.

Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, Niti Aayog said,"The impact of the pandemic has increased in the country. Warnings were given that the situation should not be taken for granted. The situation of the pandemic has worsened and the speed of increasing COVID-19 cases is higher than last time."

Dr V K Paul said the pandemic situation in the country worsened with a sharp rise in cases and a large part of the population is still susceptible to the virus. The tools to fight the pandemic remain the same. COVID-appropriate behaviour, containment measures, testing have to be implemented more efficiently, medical infrastructure has to be ramped up and vaccination drive intensified, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to interact with chief ministers on Thursday, i.e. April 8, to discuss the coronavirus situation in the country. The PM will also discuss the ongoing nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive with the chief ministers, sources told on Monday as per a news agency. PM Modi will interact with the chief ministers amid surging COVID-19 cases in the country.

PM Modi's had last interacted with the chief ministers on March 17. At that time, PM Modi had expressed concern over the rising coronavirus cases in parts of the nation. The Prime Minister had called for  "quick and decisive" steps to check the "emerging second peak" of the pandemic.

PM Modi had participated in a high-level meeting with senior officials on Sunday. The PM had reviewed the coronavirus situation and the vaccination drive in the country amid an "alarming rate" of growth in COVID-19 cases and fatalities.