Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned that the growth rate of Covid-19 cases this time was higher than earlier

Expressing serious concern over the sharp spike in Covid-19 cases in recent days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that there was a need to work on a war footing again to fight the pandemic.

Addressing Chief Ministers via video conferencing on Thursday, the Prime Minister warned that while the country had crossed the peak of the first wave, the growth rate this time was higher than earlier.

Several states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat had already crossed the peak of the first wave, he said, adding that some other states were heading in the same direction.

A challenging situation was emerging again, he said, pointing out that people had become complacent. He stressed on the need to follow Covid-appropriate behavior, including wearing face masks, even after vaccination.

Testing, tracing and tracking were needed to curb the spread of Covid-19 infection, Prime Minister said, adding that despite all the challenges, we have a better experience, resources & a vaccine. He requested the CMs to give their suggestions to tackle the Covid-19 situation.

This was the second time in five days that the Prime Minister chaired a meeting to assess the current situation amid the surge in Covid-19 cases.

The meet came on a day that India registered a record single-day spike of 1,26,789 new COVID-19 cases, pushing its infection tally to 1,29,28,574, while the number of active cases too went upwards to breach the nine lakh-mark again.

Ten States - Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Kerala and Punjab - have shown a rise in the COVID daily new cases and account for 84.21% of the new cases.

Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 59,907 followed by Chhattisgarh with 10,310 while Karnataka reported 6,976 new cases.

The center and the states have been trying to curb the infection by increasing testing, imposing stricter lockdown rules in some states, and by increasing the vaccination doses.

On a positive note, India has crossed a landmark milestone on Thursday under the world’s largest vaccination drive as the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed the 9-crore-mark.

Cumulatively, 90,198,673 vaccine doses have been administered through 1,377,304 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, nearly 30 lakh vaccination doses were administered in the last 24 hours.

As on Day-82 of the vaccination drive (Wednesday, April 7), 2,979,292 vaccine doses were given. Out of these, 2,690,031 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 38,760 sessions for 1st dose and 289,261 beneficiaries received 2nd dose of vaccine.

In terms of the average number of daily doses administered globally, India stands at the top with an average of 3,430,502 doses administered per day.

Notably, Prime Minister Modi took the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine at AIIMS, Delhi on Thursday.

In a tweet, PM Modi said "Got my second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at AIIMS today. Vaccination is among the few ways we have, to defeat the virus. If you are eligible for the vaccine, get your shot soon. Register on CoWin.gov.in."

https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1379974475278557187

India’s cumulative recoveries stand at 11,851,393. With 59,258 recoveries registered in the last 24 hours, the national Recovery Rate is at 91.67%.

Ten States account for 87.59% of the 685 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties at 322. Punjab follows with 62 daily deaths. 12 states and UTs did not report any Covid-19 casualties during this period.