Covid-19 second wave intensifies in India with over 45,000 daily cases
New Delhi, Mar 22 (efe-epa).- The second wave of coronavirus infections continues to intensify in India with the country on Monday registering the highest daily caseload since November, as infections crossed the 45,000-mark, along with 212 deaths.
India reported 46,951 Covid-19 cases within the last 24 hours, according to the latest figures released by authorities.
The number of total infections has crossed 11.6 million as India continues to he the third worst affected country by the pandemic after the United States and Brazil.
Although the daily infections continue to be much below the 100,000 mark they nearly touched during the pandemic’s peak in September, the second wave has dampened the optimistic atmosphere of the past few months when the daily caseload had been declining, falling to around 10,000 in February.
The daily death toll also rose to 212 on Monday, highest since January, taking the total number of Covid deaths to 159,967.
The rise in infections is mainly limited to six of the country’s 36 states and territories, which account for 85 percent of the total cases.
The biggest hotspots have emerged in the western state of Maharashtra, which has Mumbai as its capital and reported 30,535 fresh cases on Monday, around 65 percent of the total new infections in India according to official data.
The number of fresh infections in the other five regions is much below that of Maharashtra, as northern Punjab and Kerala (south) reported the second and third highest caseload with 2,644 and 1,875 infections respectively.
The rise in cases in India, which is partly linked to a general relaxed attitude of the population vis-a-vis restrictions, has led to state governments hardening measures in order to control the spread of the virus
The western state of Rajasthan has announced night curfews in several cities and made it mandatory for travelers from all states to show a negative RT-PCR test report for entering the region.
Indian authorities are also studying the possibility of strengthening restrictions during the upcoming popular festival Holi, which can lead to a further surge in cases towards the end of the month as crowds gather in the streets to celebrate spring by throwing colored powder and water on each other. EFE-EPA
mvg/ia
