New Delhi:Amid rising COVID-19 cases across the nation, the CPI in the Rajya Sabha on Monday demanded the free distribution of masks to the deprived sections of the society.
Raising the matter during Zero Hour, Binoy Visam, the party MP from Kerala, said that many people could not afford the masks and there was also a lack of awareness on the issue.
The country has witnessed a surge in COVID-19 cases with a spike of 86,960 infected cases, including 1,130 deaths in 24 hours taking India's tally on Monday to 54,875,80 cases.
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Of the total COVID-19 cases, 10,032,99 were active and 43,963,99 have recovered while 87,882 lost the battle against the viral disease.
Though India rallies behind the US in the number of coronavirus cases, it has overtaken the country to become number one in terms of global recoveries.
While the recovery rate stands at a high of 79.68 per cent, the fatality rate has come down to 1.61 per cent, said data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit with 1,208,642 cases, including 32,671 deaths, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
According to data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), India conducted 7,31,534 sample tests in a single day on Sunday taking the number of samples tested to 64,392,594 till now.
IANS report
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