NEW DELHI: The highest daily surge of 1,975 new novel coronavirus cases in India took the total COVID 19 cases near 27,000 on Sunday but the government said that pandemic situation in the country might be “improving” as several hotspot districts are now turning into non-hotspot districts.
The Centre has however urged states not to lower the guards and cautioned those with high case loads to pay attention on lockdown measures and rigorous containment strategies.
The death toll due to the highly contagious infection has now increased to 826 as 47 new deaths were reported since Saturday and 5,913 patients who were infected with COVID 19, have been discharged or cured of the virus--taking the recovery rate to over 21 per cent.
“People should follow lockdown 2.0 in letter and spirit but it’s a relief to note that the situation is improving as some hot spot districts have now moved to non hot-spot category,” said Union health ministry after reviewing the preparedness at AIIMS trauma centre in Delhi--a dedicated COVID 19 hospital.
About 10 days back, the total number of hotspot districts in India stood at 170 and the government has not made public any update on the overall change in this number but on Friday it had said that there are 12 districts now that have not recorded any new coronavirus cases in last 28 days. These districts earlier had reported confirmed cases of the disease.
On Sunday, cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba held a meeting with the chief secretaries and police heads of all states to review the COVID 19 preparedness response.
“He highlighted that states which are having high cases loads should focus on effective implementation of lockdown measures and containment strategy,” said a statement by the government.
“States also need to focus on medical infrastructure which includes medical facilities such as adequate availability of isolation beds, ICU beds, ventilator.”