Chennai: Just when the country thought the worst was over, India seems to be experiencing a second wave of the Covid infection, with active cases increasing by the day.
The spike in national numbers comes as five states – Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh – are reporting increased daily numbers.
This has resulted in the Central government advising the five states to continue ‘adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour’ which is critical to break the chain of transmission and contain the novel coronavirus, even as Maharashtra already imposing fresh curbs to contain the spread.
The development comes as fresh Covid-19 cases continue to show an upward trend over the past one week. India reported 14,199 new cases in the last 24 hours on Monday with the overall tally mounting to 1,10,05,850, health officials said.
Over the past one month, the country has been recording less than 15,000 new infections daily with the toll not crossing the 200-mark.
However, in the past few days the Coronavirus cases in various parts of the country suddenly showed a spike.
On Saturday, 14,264 cases were reported, on 20 February, there were 13,993, on 19 February, the count of new cases was 13,193, on 18 February it was 12,881, on 17 February, the number was 11,610, on 16 February the number was 9,121.
The Centre has told the five states under watch to improve testing by increasing the proportion of RT-PCR tests; ensure that all negative Rapid Antigen Test results are mandatorily followed by an RT-PCR test; enforce strict surveillance as well as stringent containment in districts, including areas emerging as cluster zones; and monitor mutant strains through testing and genome sequencing.