Monitor News Desk
India has recorded a massive surge of 89,129 Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the country’s total caseload to 12,392,260, the health ministry said.
Active cases have crossed the 600,000-mark and now stand at 658,909. India is now the 5th-worst hit country in terms of active cases.
India also witnessed a grim record of most fatalities due to covid-19 in a single day in 2021, which stood at 714. The death toll from the deadly infection stands at 164,141.
On Friday, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba chaired a high-level review meeting with Chief Secretaries, DG Police and Health Secretaries of all States and UTs, with focus on 11 States, UTs that have been reporting very high rise in daily cases and daily mortality in the last two weeks.
Taking note of the present situation due to the continuous deterioration of the COVID scenario over the fortnight, the Cabinet Secretary pointed out that the current COVID case growth rate of 6.8% in March 2021 has surpassed the previous record of 5.5% (June 2020).
The country also reported a 5.5% growth rate in daily COVID deaths in this period.
While the country was reporting about 97,000 daily new COVID cases at the peak of the pandemic in September 2020, the country has now reached the critical figure of 81,000 daily new cases of COVID.
The Union Home Secretary pointed out that the 11 States and UTs that are showing a surge in daily COVID cases have not shown commensurate increase in enforcement of containment activities. He urged the Chief Secretaries and DGs (Police) of the States/UTs for taking appropriate strict action in this regard.
