Modi chairs meeting amid surge in coronavirus cases

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is holding a high-level meeting to review the COVID-related issues including the ongoing vaccination drive in the country as the infection is seeing a surge.  All senior officers — including the Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, the Health Secretary are participating in the meeting.

Over the last 24 hours, the country saw the biggest daily surge in Covid cases since mid-September, with 93,249 fresh infections, taking the tally to over 1.24 crore.

 

This is the highest since September 19, when 93,337 cases were recorded.

 

The health ministry has said that eight states account for 81.42 per cent of the infections reported in the last 24 hours. The states are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.

 

The Centre has already asked states to take strong action to enforce the safety measures among the masses including the use of mask and social distancing. The growing laxity in implementing the safety measures is the reason for the current spike, it maintains, though scientists have pointed to the proliferation of mutant strains.

 

Dr Randeep Guleria — the chief of Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences and a top member of the government’s Covid Task Force — said it is time to place a bigger range of measures, including containment zones, lockdown areas, ramping up testing, tracing and isolation.

 

Earlier Dr Guleria had said the mutant strains are partly responsible for the spike