INFECTIONS AT 3-WEEK HIGH, MUMBAI HIRES MARSHALS TO ENFORCE COVID PROTOCOLS

With 13,193 cases, the country reported on Friday its biggest jump in new Covid-19 infections in three weeks. In recent days, almost three-fourth of India’s new cases have been reported from Kerala and Maharashtra. The two states already have the highest number of reported infections.

While experts believe that the re-opening of educational institutes in Kerala and resumption of suburban train services in Mumbai could be a major reason in the spike, one fears of late there has been laxity in following Covid protocols in public places.

Given this, Mumbai has begun hiring marshals to enforce mask wearing. Out of nearly 5,000 marshals, around 300 would be deployed on the rail network, Reuters quoted city authorities as saying.

India’s tally of Covid-19 cases rose to 1,09,63,394 with 13,193 new infections being reported in a day while the recoveries have surged to 1,06,67,741 on Friday. The deaths increased to 1,56,111 with 97 daily new fatalities. The coronavirus fatality rate has dropped to 1.42% while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,06,56,845 which translates to a national Covid-19 recovery rate of 97.32%. The active caseload remained below 1.5 lakh. There are 1,37,342 active coronavirus cases in the country which comprises 1.25% of the total caseload.

 Delhi recorded 158 fresh coronavirus cases and one fatality on Friday, even as the positivity rate stood at 0.26%. With this, the death toll went up to 10,897.

 With the addition of 823 new Covid-19 cases, Mumbai recorded the highest single-day spike in infections on Friday since December last year. The tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 3,17,310 while the toll has reached 11,435 with five new casualties. The daily count of infections crossed the 700-mark in the last two days after it recorded less than 500 cases at the start of the week. As many as 440 patients were discharged after recovering from the virus, taking the count of recoveries to 2,98,435. The number of active cases stands at 6,577.

 Haryana recorded 93 fresh coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of infections to 2,69,498. With no coronavirus-linked fatality taking place in the past 24 hours, the death toll stood at 3,042. Haryana has 813 active cases while 2,65,643 people have recovered from the infection. The Covid-19 recovery rate in Haryana stands at 98.57%.

 Kerala’s coronavirus tally crossed the 10.25 lakh-mark with the addition of 4,584 cases while the toll rose to 4,061. The state tested 67,574 samples and the test positivity rate is 6.67%.

 Odisha’s Covid-19 tally mounted to 3,36,513 after 53 people tested positive for the virus while one more fatality pushed the death toll to 1,914.

 Three more people succumbed to coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh, taking the death toll to 8,712 while 104 fresh cases raised the infection tally to 6,02,592. 165 patients were also discharged after recovering from the virus. The number of active cases stands at 2,521 while 5,91,359 people have been treated and discharged so far.

WITH AGENCY INPUTS