Covid: India overtakes Brazil to become 2nd worst hit country
New Delhi: As India on Monday hit a new Coronavirus infection record with 1,68,912 fresh cases, the highest single-day rise so far, the country has once again surpassed Brazil's tally and become the world's second nation having the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Notably, America is at the top position with over 3,19,18,601 confirmed cases of Coronavirus, while India is pegged at the second slot with total 1,35,27,717 confirmed cases and Brazil shifted to third position as it has reported over 1,34,82,543 confirmed cases.
However, acting swiftly towards restricting the transmission of the virus, the states witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases have started mulling the implementation of partial lockdowns by either imposing night curfews or ordering closure of markets/shops by 7 pm.
The states like Maharashtra and Karnataka are mulling imposing complete lockdown if COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
As per official sources, Maharashtra may go for complete lockdown for 15 days from April 15, a day after Ambedkar Jayanti. While Karnataka, which has reported 10,250 new infections in the last 24 hours, may take the decision to bring the state under lockdown if COVID-19 cases don't come down.
While speaking to reporters in Bidar, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said that if the number of COVID-19 cases does not come down in a week, he will consider imposing lockdown or any other measures required.
In addition to these states, Haryana has announced night curfew from 9 pm till 5 am, with effect from Monday night as the number of active cases in Haryana has doubled in the last 11 days from 10,300 on April 1 to over 20,000 on April 11.
Meanwhile, an expert panel of India's central drug authority has recommended granting approval to Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V for emergency use in the country with certain conditions.
In a precautionary measure, the Civil Aviation Ministry has stated that no meals would be served on domestic flights with a duration of less than two hours to curb the Covid spread.
The unprecedented rise in fresh COVID-19 cases has badly affected the recovery rate which has fallen to 89.86 per cent from about 97 per cent when there were lesser number of new cases were being reported.
As per Health Ministry's data, the active cases have surpassed the 12-lakh mark, while the death toll increased to 1,70,179 with 904 daily new fatalities, the highest since October 18, 2020. In a related development, Bhopal 'Crisis Management Group' has decided to impose 'Corona Curfew' in Bhopal from April 13 to April 19 till 6 am.
