Centre likely to extend nation-wide lockdown: Cases spike in one day

On Friday, India recorded the highest single-day spike in the number of Covid-19 cases. According to the government’s official count, India currently has 7,876 cases of novel coronavirus, 24 hours ago the figure was at 5,865. The central government report puts the death count due to Covid-19 in India at 206.

The enormous leap in coronavirus cases comes a day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s gathering with all states’ chief ministers, where he is relied upon to make a call across the country to extend the lockdown forced on March 25, even as two states – Odisha and Punjab – have just extended lockdown till April 30.

The World Health Organization has also advised the leaders worldwide against a hurry in withdrawing the limitations forced to control the infection, as the organisation stated, it could prompt a reappearance of the dangerous disease. While the worldwide death toll is fast has reached 1,00,000, the coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 16 lakh individuals ever since its development in China last December.

While some states including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh recorded a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, the Union Health Ministry stated that on Thursday, the rate of individuals testing positive was just 0.2 percent when in excess of 16,000 people were tested. Aggregately close to 1.5 lakh tests have been conducted so far across India.

Over 200 cases have been reported by the states- Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir- while the 100-mark has already been broken by states of West Bengal, Haryana and Punjab.

In addition to this, there have also been reports of decrease in the availability of essential goods from various parts of the nation which is being looked into. Government authorities have also said that a decision on bringing Indians from abroad will be taken at a later stage after analysing the then-present situation with COVID-19.