Rise in coronavirus cases in several states worries India
New Delhi, Feb 21 (efe-epa).- The Indian government on Sunday issued alerts for several states amid an increase in the number of coronavirus cases, which has sparked fears of another wave in the country.
India is the world’s second-most affected country by the pandemic in absolute terms with almost 11 million infections and 156,000 deaths.
“India has been witnessing a rise in the active caseload over the past few days,” the Indian health ministry warned in a statement.
Although the country has recorded 14,264 new cases of Covid-19 and 90 deaths in the past 24 hours, those rates remain a far cry from the nearly 100,000 positive cases per day recorded in September.
The Indian government is particularly concerned about the increase in new infections in states such as central Maharashtra and southern Kerala, which account for 74% of all active cases.
“Of late it is seen that there has been a spike in the daily cases in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh also. Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir too are witnessing a surge in daily new cases,” the health ministry said.
Faced with this spike in infections, which along with new variants discovered in several countries has sparked fears of a second wave in the Asian giant, the Indian government has demanded measures from the affected states.
More testing, increased surveillance of infected patients and “stringent containment in selected districts” are some of the ministry’s recommendations.
The country imposed a strict nationwide lockdown in March last year that lasted until June.
Authorities in the town of Pune in the western state of Maharashtra today announced the re-introduction of a night curfew and restrictions on public movement.
