Updated: November 22, 2020 9:24:55 pm
Door-to-door surveys in the Kalyan-Dombivali municipal area of Mumbai
After Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Manipur, the Center has delegated high-level core teams to Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh in view of the increase in Covid-19 cases in these states. Development occurs in the context of various northern and central states of India the decision to reinstate night curfews in districts that see a surge in infections in the middle of the holiday season, even as the country reported fewer than 50,000 new cases daily for the 15th consecutive day, bringing its count to 90, 95 lakh.
The Union Health Ministry said core teams were sent to states that reported an increase in the number of active cases. “The teams will visit districts that report a high number of Covid-19 cases and support state efforts to strengthen containment, surveillance, testing, infection prevention and control measures, and efficient clinical management of positive cases. ”The ministry said in a statement.
The number of active cases in the country has remained below five lakh for the twelfth consecutive day. So far, 26 states and Union territories have fewer than 20,000 active cases, while seven states have between 20,000 and 50,000 active cases. Maharashtra and Kerala alone have more than 50,000 active cases.
Delhi and Kerala continue to contribute the peak number of new Covid-19 cases in the country, reporting more than 5,000 cases daily. “The spill-over effect is being observed in the NCR regions within the states of Haryana and Rajasthan,” the Health Ministry had stated.
A Delhi resident buys winter clothes at a road market in New Delhi (Express Photo: Praveen Khanna)
With Delhi witnessing a third wave, the Center, intervening for the second time, announced a series of steps: adding more ICU beds, doubling the number of daily RT-PCR tests, and conducting house-to-house surveys. All private hospitals in the capital have been asked to reserve 80 percent of their ICU beds and up to 60 percent of normal beds for Covid-19 patients. The penalty for not wearing masks has also been quadrupled, from Rs 500 to Rs 2000.
Read also | Delhi, Ahmedabad, Pune: India’s Covid Hotspots and How They Are Fighting Increasing Cases
Maharashtra is also considering reducing or suspending flights and trains to the national capital to control a second wave of infections in the state, which has also reported more than 5,000 cases. Maharashtra also witnessed an increase in cases, registering 5,760 cases on Saturday, a 17-day high. BMC has ordered all Mumbai schools to remain closed until December 31.
Telangana has reported an average of 950 cases, with daily infections crossing the 1,000 mark only once since November 15.
Neighbor Haryana, who reported more than 3,000 cases in one day for the first time last week, announced the closure of schools until November 30 as Rajasthan decided to impose night curfew in eight districts with a high number of Covid-19 cases.
READ | How States Are Penalizing The Public For Violating Covid-19 Rules
In November, the daily Covid-19 count increased from 1,700 to 3,000 in Rajasthan. The markets, restaurants, shopping malls and other commercial establishments in the urban areas of these districts will be closed at 7 pm and the night curfew will be from 8 pm to 6 pm at the 8th district headquarters of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Bikaner, Udaipur, Ajmer, Alwar and Bhilwara. The fine for not wearing masks was also increased from Rs 200 to Rs 500.
Market closed in Shimla on Sunday due to increased cases in Himachal Pradesh
Since Saturday, a night curfew has also been imposed (from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.) in five districts of Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Ratlam and Vidisha, where the positivity rate exceeds 5%. The state reported 1,500 cases on Friday, its highest count in 40 days. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has also decided to close schools until Class 8 until December 31.
No social distancing observed at Rock Garden in Chandigarh
Gujarat is also experiencing an increase in infections, reporting 1,515 coronavirus cases on Saturday, its highest daily increase since the outbreak of the infection in March, with Ahmedabad emerging as a hotspot. Gujarat city is under a “full curfew” until Monday morning, and only stores selling milk and medicine remain open. A night curfew will be imposed indefinitely on Monday night onwards in Ahmedabad. The nightly curfew between 9 pm and 6 am is already in effect in Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara from Saturday.
On the other hand, southern states like Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu continued to see a drop in cases along with Odisha. Active cases fell to 12,542 on Saturday in Tamil Nadu, as the state records nearly 50 percent fewer new daily infections compared to last month. This has led the government to allow the reopening of schools for the ninth and twelfth standards and the opening of movie theaters.
Similarly, Odisha has also seen a sharp decline in cases, reporting an average of 660 cases daily in the week ending November 22, down from more than 1,600 cases it reported a month earlier. Andhra Pradesh has also reported fewer than 2,000 new coronavirus infections for the thirteenth day in a row. Telangana has been reporting an average of 950 cases, with daily infections crossing the 1,000 mark just once since Nov. 15.
Tight police control in Vadodara after the 9pm to 6am curfew was imposed on Saturday
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