Mumbai, Delhi record another Covid-19 spike as Centre suggests measures to curb spread

Covid hotpots Mumbai and Delhi have yet again reported a massive spike in Covid-19 cases late on Saturday evening. Meanwhile, Rajasthan has recorded the highest one day spike in Omicron cases with 52 fresh cases registered on Saturday, in addition to 4 more cases reported from Uttarakhand, 6 more from Maharashtra, 2 from West Bengal and 23 new Omicron cases in Gujarat.

New Delhi:Amid the rising surge of both Covid-19 and Omicron cases across the country, Delhi recorded its highest single-day rise since May 21 with 2,716 freshly recorded Covid-19 cases on Saturday. Concurrently, Mumbai also reported yet another massive spike with 6,347 fresh Covid-19 cases. Karnataka, on the other hand, has also joined the bandwagon, with 1,033 new Covid cases reported on the same day.

With this, Maharashtra still remains the state with the highest number of Covid as well as Omicron cases in India, followed by the national capital Delhi. Meanwhile, Rajasthan has recorded the highest one day spike in Omicron cases with 52 fresh cases registered on Saturday, in addition to 4 more cases reported from Uttarakhand, 6 more from Maharashtra, 2 from West Bengal, 12 from Telangana and 23 new Omicron cases in Gujarat.

Additionally, on Saturday, Tamil Nadu reported 1,489 cases with 8 fatalities, Kerala reported 2,435 new cases and 22 deaths, Andhra Pradesh logged 176 cases, Mizoram 265 cases with 2 fatalities, West Bengal reported 4,512 fresh infections, Punjab reported 332 new cases, Rajasthan logged 301, Telangana reported 317 new cases, whereas Maharashtra reported 9,170 new COVID-19 infections.

The Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had earlier written to the chief secretaries of all states and UTs urging them to devise measures in the purview of the ever-increasing surge in COVID cases. In the letter, he advised the states and UTs to set up makeshift hospitals and constitute special teams to monitor patients in home isolation. He also suggested for special teams to monitor all home isolation cases so that the health infrastructure isn't strained.

With an intention to ensure preparedness, he said, “states are advised to initiate the creation of field or makeshift hospitals, which can be done with coordination with DRDO and CSIR as well as the private sector, corporations, NGOs, etc." He further urged the states to start utilising the existing ECRP-II budget for the creation of additional isolation beds and field hospitals, ICU beds, paediatric excellence centres, availability of oxygen, ambulances, drugs and diagnostics, human resources and tele-consolation platforms at the earliest.

In a separate effort, the Rajasthan government has put emphasis on vaccination and to gear it up, the authorities have introduced a vaccination helpline allowing the masses to book vaccination slots via phone call, after which the authorities will provide doorstep service of vaccination. However, the medical authorities have recently reported misuse of this service by the people.

As reported by the Health Ministry in its daily morning update, the official tally of active Omicron cases in India stands at 1,431, excluding the freshly reported cases from states across the day.

As on official records, India reported 22,775 new COVID-19 cases and 406 deaths in the last 24 hours, as informed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday morning.