Centre Orders State Governments To Stricter Steps Due To Rise In Covid-19 Cases
Mar 20, 2021, 13:48 IST
With the country witnessing a huge rise in coronavirus cases, the Centre directed the states and Union territories to stricltly ensure that people follow Covid-appropriate behaviour like wearing of face masks, maintaining hand hygiene and following social distancing.
The sudden surge was due to "laxity in the observance of COVID-appropriate behaviour" by people, especially at crowded places, like mall, theatre, restraunts, and other public places- the centre observed.
"After a steady decline in the number of COVID-19 cases for about five months, for the last few weeks, the number is showing a rapid increasing trend in several parts of the country. It has been observed that it is largely due to laxity in the observance of COVID-appropriate behaviour by people, especially at crowded places," Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has said in a letter to all the states and Union territories.
Therefore in view the fresh spike in the number of cases and the upcoming festivals like Holi, it will be important to ensure compliance of the guidelines and strictly enforce COVID-appropriate behaviour, the Union Home Secretary said.
After five moths, the number of cases have seen a sudden spike in India.
Today morning, India added 40,953 new coronavirus cases, its highest daily-rise since November 29, the government data showed. Today's numbers are nearly four per cent higher than the daily spike in cases recorded yesterday morning when 39,726 new cases were added. The country has been recording more than 20,000 cases since last week.
The worrying surge has prompted states like Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh to consider return of school closures, restrictions on public gatherings and other virus-fighting measures, including lockdown and night curfew in their worst-hit districts.
Overall, India has now recorded 1.15 crore (1,15,55,284) cases since the outbreak a year ago, according to the government data updated today. In the 24-hour period, India reported 188 deaths linked to the virus taking the total number of fatalities to 1,59,558.
And according to Health Minister, Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh account for 80.63 per cent of the daily new cases.
