Surge in Covid-19 could overwhelm health infra: What prompted Centre’s warning

The Centre urged states to take immediate steps to limit the outbreak and strengthen hospitals and enhance intensive care capacities

Published on: Mar 31, 2021, 08:58:51 IST

By HT Correspondent | Edited by Sameer

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The Centre on Tuesday warned states that the surge in Covid-19 cases can potentially overwhelm India’s healthcare infrastructure. Here is all you need to know about the warning and what triggered it:

• It came as the national positivity rate crossed 5% for the first time since October, indicating the severity of the ongoing second wave.

• The Centre urged states to take immediate steps to limit the outbreak and strengthen hospitals and enhance intensive care capacities.

• During a weekly briefing, the Union government officials separately identified the current hotbeds (10 districts in particular, of which eight are in Maharashtra).

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• The officials called for immediate steps to improve testing and isolation of those infected to control a situation.

• The average positivity rate has risen above 5% for the first time since October 22.

• The weekly national average positivity rate was 5.65%.

• Maharashtra has a weekly average of 23%, Punjab 8.82%, Chhattisgarh 8%, Madhya Pradesh 7.82%, Tamil Nadu 2.50%, Karnataka 2.45%, Gujarat 2.2% and Delhi 2.04%.

• Ten districts in the country currently account for the majority of active Covid-19 cases, with eight of them in Maharashtra alone.

• While testing has been low over the past two days due to the weekend and the festival of Holi, the daily average of cases added across the country over the week till March 29 was around 58,000, the highest since October 20.

• The districts with high active caseloads are Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad, Bengaluru Urban, Nanded, Delhi, and Ahmednagar.

• India’s vaccination drive is just picking up momentum.

• A total of 62.3 million vaccine shots were administered till Tuesday at 7pm, with 9 million people having received both shots and 44.3 million one.

• The drive is expected to pick up from April 1 when anyone over the age of 45 years becomes eligible for a vaccine.

• In Maharashtra, officials have floated the idea of a lockdown to contain the outbreak.

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