Chandigarh: With 1,752 new positive cases in the last 24 hours, India recorded its highest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases on Friday, taking the country’s tally to 23,452. The death toll stood at 723. As many as 17,915 Covid-19 cases are active while at least 4,813 people have been cured and discharged so far.
However, the Health Ministry said that no new cases were reported in 15 districts in the last 28 days. The govt, meanwhile, said the lockdown announced by PM Narendra Modi was a timely step, without which there would have been an estimated one lakh COVID-19 cases in India by now. Officials said the virus outbreak is under control in the country and credited a robust surveillance network along with the implementation of the lockdown and other containment measures for it.
The exit plan is still work in progress and will depend, for one, on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with chief ministers on April 27. In the end, it will be driven by the Centre‘s analysis of how the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen that causes Covid-19 is spreading within states, districts and the thousands of containment zones notified across the country closer to May 3.
The government has, from this week, already relaxed restrictions in rural areas to let people harvest crops and work in a select group of industries with access controls and proper protocols.
The national lockdown exit plan is still work in progress and will depend, for one, on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with chief ministers on April 27
The national lockdown exit plan is still work in progress and will depend, for one, on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with chief ministers on April 27(ANI)
The Centre is leaning towards a calibrated exit from the Covid-19 national lockdown beginning May 3 that would strike a balance between ensuring the pandemic doesn’t flare-up and easing restrictions in order to revive the economy.
The government has, from this week, already relaxed restrictions in rural areas to let people harvest crops and work in a select group of industries with access controls and proper protocols.
“From May 3, the idea is to expand the list of permitted activities in a way that does not lead to a free-for-all,” a top government official told newsmen. The basic principle is to adopt a step-by-step approach under constant monitoring as the Modi government knows that India is in for a long haul.
“There was a time when the global community including the WHO was worried about how India would be able to control the virus infections and death with experts and armchair strategists predicting a doomsday scenario. We showed the world by pre-empting the virus through strong procedures. We will be able to handle it in future also,” said a senior Union minister of the government.
The exit plan is still work in progress and will depend, for one, on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with chief ministers on April 27. In the end, it will be driven by the Centre‘s analysis of how the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen that causes Covid-19 is spreading within states, districts and the thousands of containment zones notified across the country closer to May 3.
Officials associated with the empowered committees mandated to track the disease and formulate the government’s response said their primary worry at the moment is the spread of the disease in the metro cities, particularly in its slum clusters due to high density of population and lack of social distancing.