aircrafts, cinema halls, shopping malls, departmental stores, offices and classrooms. Earlier, the Haryana government had made the wearing of a face mask mandatory in four districts falling in the National Capital region.
With 2,380 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India’s total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,30,49,974, while the active cases increased to 13,433, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. The death toll climbed to 5,22,062 with 56 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The active cases comprise 0.03 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate remained at 98.76 per cent, the ministry said. An increase of 1,093 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
Haryana’s Gurugram district continued to witness an upswing in Covid cases, with 225 of the 310 infections which the state reported on Wednesday coming from the NCR district. The Haryana government had on Monday made the wearing of face masks mandatory in four districts falling in the National Capital region including Gurugram.
The state Health Department’s daily bulletin on Wednesday said while Gurugram reported 225 cases of the infection, 67 cases were reported from Faridabad, another NCR district. Of the remaining 20 districts in the state, 18 cases were reported from eight districts while twelve districts reported zero cases.
As on Wednesday, of the 1,252 active cases in the state, 941 were from Gurugram while 249 were from Faridabad district. Gurugram has been witnessing a surge in Covid cases for the past several days.
With some states registering a spike in COVID-19 cases, the Odisha government on Wednesday asked all the district authorities and other stakeholders to maintain a close watch on the situation and keep a contingency plan ready to deal with any possible exigency. Public Health Director Dr Niranjan Mishra, however, asserted that the COVID situation in Odisha is very much under control and there is nothing to worry about.
“To prepare a strategy, we need to know if there is a surge in COVID-19 cases in any cluster or pocket in the state. Further, we need to collect evidence-based data on the outbreak,” Mishra said. The collectors were asked to keep a close vigil on people coming from high-burden countries and states, Mishra said, calling for strengthening the system of testing, tracking, treatment, vaccination and adherence to COVID norms.
Delhi logged 1,009 fresh Covid cases on Wednesday, a 60 per cent jump from a day ago, with the city government making the wearing of masks in public places mandatory again and announcing a Rs 500 fine on violators. This was the maximum number of cases recorded in Delhi since February 10 when 1,104 infections were reported.
Despite a spurt in Covid cases in Delhi, hospitalisation has so far been low accounting for less than three per cent of the total active cases, according to government data. On April 10, there were 608 active Covid-19 cases in Delhi which only 17 (2.80 per cent) required hospitalisation.
Active cases doubled to 1,262 on April 16 but the number of patients in hospitals was just 29 (2.3 per cent). Two days later, Delhi had 1,729 active cases of which 40 (2.31 per cent) were in hospitals. The number of patients in hospitals requiring oxygen support has increased in terms of numbers but decreased as a percentage.
