India registered a huge spike of 35,871 fresh coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the highest since early December, a day after the government said a total of 70 districts in 16 states have seen an increase of more than 150 per cent active cases between March 1 and 15.
Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state accounting for 65% of the total cases.
Total infections have now risen to 11.47 million, the highest after the United States and Brazil. Deaths rose by 172 to 159,216, data from the health ministry showed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with chief ministers on Wednesday amid the surge in cases. He said it was critical to stop the “emerging second peak” of Covid with steps such as micro-containment zones, increased testing and enforcement of restrictions like masks. “If we don’t stop this right now, then there could be a situation of a nationwide outbreak. We have to immediately stop the emerging second peak and take big and decisive steps,” PM Modi told the Chief Ministers.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal will hold a review meeting with the Health Minister, Health Secretary and other concerned officials, over rising Covid-19 cases in the national capital, reports said.
The Covid-19 situation is worsening day by day in Maharashtra as the state broke another record on Wednesday with 23,179 new cases, while the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) saw whopping 4,811 fresh cases in 24 hours. This comes even as the western state has increased vaccination with a record 2,64,897 people receiving coronavirus jabs a day earlier — the highest number since the inoculation drive began in January. A health official said that Wednesday’s tally is the highest single-day infection count so far in 2021. This is the sixth highest one-day spike of infection cases in the state since the pandemic began last year.
With these new cases, Maharashtra’s overall infection count rose to 23,70,507, the official said. The state had reported its first COVID-19 case in March last year. The daily number of cases had started rising gradually and in September last year, more than one lakh cases were added in Maharashtra within a span of merely a week. On September 11 last year, the state had reported 24,886 cases, while on September 17, a total of 24,619 cases were added. The third, fourth and fifth highest figures were reported on September 9 (23,816), September 6 (23,350) and September 10 (23,446).
