LEAD

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting on Sunday to review the COVID-19 situation and the vaccination programme amid a surge in coronavirus cases. During the meeting, PM directed that central teams consisting of public health specialists and clinicians be sent to Maharashtra in view of high caseload and deaths, and likewise to Punjab and Chhattisgarh because of the disproportionate number of deaths being reported there, Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement.

The reasons for the sharp rise in cases could be mainly attributed to the severe decline in compliance of COVID-appropriate behaviour, especially in the use of masks and social distancing, pandemic fatigue and lack of effective implementation of containment measures at the field level, it said.

New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India is currently in crisis management after Corona scare which saw one of the Delhi Capitals player–Axar Patel and ten ground staff at Wankhede testing positive for the Pandemic. Although it is understood that Indore and Hyderabad are on standby for hosting the opener, Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium in all likelihood will get the game as planned.The Times of India has quoted a senior BCCI official saying ‘its too late to shift the match.’

“It’s too late to move the matches from Mumbai now. The members of the organizing team have been in separate bubble. The players are in strict bubble. BCCI had Hyderabad as a back-up but it’s very difficult to move it in a week,” the official told the newspaper.

COVID-19 infections are breaking all records, cases continue to surge in India as the country reported 81,466 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. Country’s total COVID-19 caseload stood at 1,23,03,131. Around 50,356 patients were discharged and the recovery tally mounted to 1,15,25,039. 469 deaths were reported due to the virus in the last 24 hours, which are the highest in the last 5 months. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research total of 24,59,12,587 samples have been tested for COVID-19. Union Health Ministry reported a total of 6,87,89,138 vaccinations have been done till date.

The Centre on Thursday (April 1, 2021) informed that COVID-19 vaccination will now be done on all days of April, including gazetted holidays at all public and private hospitals.

The Centre has also written to all states and UTs and asked them to make necessary arrangements to provide COVID-19 vaccination in these CVCs on all days of the month including gazetted holidays during April 2021.

The decision was taken after detailed deliberations with the states/UTs to optimally utilize all COVID Vaccination Centres across the public and private sectors to ensure a rapid increase in the pace and coverage of COVID vaccination. 

The announcement comes on a day when people above 45 years of age have been allowed to take the COVID-19 vaccine jabs. 

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee shot off letters to leaders of opposition parties highlighting the "assaults" by the BJP on democracy and federal structure of India.

Just ahead of the scheduled second phase of elections in the state, CM Banerjee's letter seeks to drum up support from opposition leaders by pointing out how the non-BJP ruled states are suffering due to the actions of the Centre.

"I am writing this letter to you, and to several leaders of non-BJP parties, to convey my serious concerns over a series of assaults by the BJP and its government at the Centre on democracy and constitutional federalism in India," she said.