NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to discuss the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the country with the chief ministers on Wednesday.
The virtual meeting is likely to be held in the backdrop of rising cases of Covid-19 in a few states.
Sources said the PM, who has been holding regular consultations with the CMs since the outbreak of the pandemic, will stress on the measures to be taken up to keep the surge under control.
Meanwhile, the daily Covid-19 figures in the country have returned to pre-January levels, with the death toll too growing at a worrying rate.
On Sunday, India registered 26, 291 fresh cases, the highest since December 16, while the deaths recorded were 118, with Maharashtra alone reporting 50 fatalities.
An analysis of the pandemic data shows that the seven-day moving average of daily new cases has more than doubled from 10,986, on February 8, to 22,270 now. In the same period, the daily deaths increased from 89 to 125, registering a 40 per cent increase.
In these five weeks, the daily testing, however, increased only by 12 per cent and only about 7.04 lakh tests were carried out on Sunday.
“Going by the numbers so far, while the average daily cases have doubled from its lows, the number of deaths have increased by 40 per cent. I am afraid that a more rapid increase in deaths may start showing with a delay of 2-3 weeks,” said Rijo M John, a health economist.
Some specialists working in states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have confirmed this too.
“Our ICUs are again getting filled with Covid-19 patients, some of whom unfortunately will not survive,” said a critical care specialist with a government hospital in Mumbai who did not wish to be quoted.
“Some patients who are very sick tend to have long stays in ICUs and their outcome will be concluded only in 2-3 weeks’ time,” he added.
Meanwhile, for the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a rising trajectory of new cases in eight states has been a nagging worry. These states include Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana.
Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 16,620 (accounting for 63.21 per cent of the daily new cases).
It is followed by Kerala with 1,792 while Punjab reported 1,492 new cases.
Kerala has a consistently declining trend over the last one month, it stated.
India's total COVID-19 active caseload has reached 2,19,262 comprising 1.93 per cent of the total infections.
Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab, cumulatively account for 77 per cent of India's total active cases.
Maharashtra alone accounts for more than 58 per cent of the total active cases in the country.
India is, meanwhile, fast approaching total vaccination coverage of 3 crore.
The ministry said 2,99,08,038 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered through 5,13,065 sessions, as per the provisional report till Monday 7 am.
These include 73,55,755 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have been administered 1st dose, 43,05,118 HCWs who have been given the 2nd dose), 73,40,423 frontline workers (FLWs) who have taken the 1st dose and 11,50,535 FLWs who have received the 2nd dose.
Besides, 14,64,014 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities and 82,92,193 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years have been administered the 1st dose.
As on day-58 of the vaccination drive (14th March), 1,40,880 vaccine doses were given.
"Being a Sunday, most states and UTs did not schedule vaccination sessions yesterday," the ministry said.
Of the total, 1,20,885 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 2,211 sessions for 1st dose and 19,995 HCWs and FLWs received 2nd dose of vaccine.
India's cumulative recoveries stand at 1,10,07,352 with 17,455 recoveries were registered in a span of 24 hours.
The ministry said 84.10 per cent of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 6 states.
Maharashtra has reported the maximum number of single day recoveries with 8,861 newly recovered cases.
A total of 118 deaths were reported in a span of 24 hours.
Six states account for 82.20 per cent of the new deaths.
Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (50).
Punjab follows with 20 daily deaths and Kerala reported 15 deaths in a span of 24 hours.
Sixteen states and UTs have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in a span of 24 hours.
These are Assam, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Jharkhand, Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Ladakh (UT), Manipur, Daman and Diu & Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Andman and Nicobar Islands and Arunachal Pradesh.
(With PTI Inputs)