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Covid-19: With 1,45,384 fresh infections, India logs highest daily spike since outbreak of pandemic

The Union Health Ministry on Saturday said that as many as 1,45,384 people tested positive for Covid-19 in the span of 24 hours, the highest-ever single day surge, taking the cumulative tally to 1,32,05,926. With 794 deaths, the total fatalities have reached 1,68,436, the government said.

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Covid-19 cases

The Union Health Ministry on Saturday said that as many as 1,45,384 people tested positive for Covid-19 in the span of 24 hours, the highest-ever single day surge, taking the cumulative tally to 1,32,05,926. With 794 deaths, the total fatalities have reached 1,68,436, the government said.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, it is the biggest jump that India has witnessed in the last 24 hours. This is the fifth consecutive day that the country has recorded more than 1 lakh cases in a single day. The Covid graph is continuing to see a steep rise with over 6.16 lakh infections reported in the last five days.

The daily fatalities have also been recording high jump as the second wave of coronavirus rages across the country. Also, with 77,567 more people recuperated from the disease, the total number of recoveries now stands at 1,19,90,859, while the number of active cases has reached 10,46,631.

However, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has said that no new cases have been reported in 149 districts in a week, while eight districts have not registered any new infection in a fortnight. 

How do different states fare?

Over 83 percent of the fresh cases have been recorded from ten worst-hit states including  Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Rajasthan. These states have shown a steep hike in daily Covid-19 cases. 

Among those, Maharashtra is reporting the highest number of cases across the country. On Friday, the state recorded nearly 59,000 new cases and 301 related deaths, taking the total cases to 32,88,540. The state has contributed to maximum overall morbidity and mortality in the country, every fourth Covid-19 infected person is from Maharashtra.

Other most affected states by total cases are Kerala with 1,154 594, Karnataka with 1,033,560, Tamil Nadu with  911,110, and Andhra Pradesh with 913,274 cases.

What are the measures taken so far?

The surge in Covid-19 cases has triggered fresh curbs in the number of states across the country.  Maharashtra, the worst hit, is headed towards a lockdown if the Covid cases continue to rise in the state said Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope. The weekend lockdown has already begun to contain the ongoing surge in the Covid-19 cases in the state.

Several other states have initiated precautionary measures like night curfews, travel restrictions, banning social gatherings, ramping up of vaccinations to minimise the spread of the coronavirus. So far, night curfews have been imposed in parts of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, West Bengal, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra, among several others.

Amid the Covid surge, the Delhi government has announced closing of all schools and colleges till further notice. Meanwhile,  the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is facing criticism for going ahead with the board exams despite the spike. 

How is the vaccination drive going?

In the ongoing Covid-19 vaccine drive, more than 9.43 crore vaccine doses have been administered in the country till Friday morning, the health minister said during a virtual 24th meeting of the High-level Group of Ministers. 

Several states, however, are grappling with vaccine shortage vaccines, with several running vaccination centres below capacity and demanding that the Centre give them stocks to last at least seven days.

Pointing out the vaccine shortage, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has sought an immediate supply of 30 lakh Covid-19 vaccines to the State. He said the inoculation drive will have to be halted due to insufficient stock. The Centre’s claim of no shortage of Covid-19 vaccines in the country is wrong and demanded that a status report on the availability of doses be made public. 

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said the State would require at least 40 lakh doses per week. The state had only around 12 lakh doses left as of Thursday afternoon, he said.

For the past three days, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and Cabinet ministers have been sending SOS to the Centre to replenish vaccines as the states were running out of stocks. 

In a letter to the Prime Minister,  Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had asked for an immediate moratorium on exports as he claimed that the country is facing vaccine starvation. He asked the government to open up vaccination to everyone who needs it and increase the capacity of allocation to ₹35,000 crores for the vaccination program. 

However, the Centre has maintained that there is no shortage of shots in India. All the claims of states are baseless and the Centre is supplying vaccines to all states equitably irrespective of the ruling party, said Harsh Vardhan. 

The central government is working very hard in controlling the pandemic and pacing the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination program and states should support it instead of playing politics. Whichever states are reporting to us about shortage we are supplying the adequate vaccines without delay, he added.

Read Also: West Bengal Election: PM Modi, CM Banerjee appeal to eligible voters to step out in large numbers and vote

India began its vaccination drive on January 16 with health workers and frontline workers getting inoculated in the first phase of the rollout. The second phase of the vaccination commenced on March 1 for those who are above 60 years of age and for people aged 45 and above with specified comorbid conditions. The vaccination drive extended to include everybody aged 45 from April 1.

2024 Lok Sabha Elections

Amit Shah says there will be jungle raj in the country if INDIA Bloc is voted to power

The Union Home Minister asserted that, if INDIA Bloc alliance comes to power, there will be a complete jungle raj in the country as well as in Bihar.

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday that there will be jungle raj in the country if INDIA bloc partners – Congress and RJD – are voted to power. He was addressing an election rally in favour of senior BJP leader and Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, in Bihar’s Samastipur district where he said that the latest recovery of Rs 30 crore and more from the house of a minister in Jharkhand proves INDIA bloc alliance leaders are corrupt.

The Union Home Minister asserted that, if INDIA Bloc alliance comes to power, there will be a complete jungle raj in the country as well as in Bihar. Earlier the Enforcement Directorate on Monday recovered a huge amount of unaccounted cash during searches at the premises of a domestic help who was allegedly linked to the secretary of Jharkhand minister Alamgir Alam.

Shah asked the people at the rally that who will be the prime minister of the INDIA bloc? He asked if Sharad Pawar  would become the prime minister? Or Will Mamata Banerjee will become the PM of the country or MK Stalin or Uddhav Thackeray? He jokingly took at dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and said that he would like to take another name. He asked the people not to laugh and said can Rahul baba become the PM?

Shah accused the leaders of the RJD and the Congress of not attending the Ayodhya Ram temple Pran Pratishtha because of vote bank politics.  He further added that RJD’s Lalu Prasad and Congress always opposed the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. Shah pointed out that Congress has always opposed reservation for the backward classes. Sarairanjan block comes under the Ujiarpur Lok Sabha constituency where Rai is seeking a reelection. Rai, who is the NDA nominee, is up against RJD’s Alok Mehta.

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2024 Lok Sabha Elections

Union Minister Anurag Thakur lashes out at Congress, accuses party of receiving support from Pakistan

Anurag Thakur was speaking to the media during an event in Himachal Pradesh’s Una district

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Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Monday alleged the influence of foreign powers in the Congress manifesto and accused the grand old party of receiving support from Pakistan. He said the BJP never believes in politics in times of disaster and emergencies, but the Congress has stooped so low that it is doing politics in such matters as well.

Anurag Thakur was speaking to the media during an event in Himachal Pradesh’s Una district on Monday. He also applauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for its proactive role during disastrous floods and rains in Himachal Pradesh. The Union Minister said that the Modi government has distributed crores of rupees in Himachal Pradesh during the disaster.

Thakur took a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and said that the Wayanad MP forgot to follow his own slogan of daro mat. He said that Gandhi is running from one seat to another while fearing defeat in the ongoing Loksabha elections. Thakur further added that Rahul Gandhi first ran from Amethi to Wayanad and now he is contesting from Rae Bareli and the Congress will be wiped out from Rae Bareli as well.

Anurag Thakur targeted the Congress and said the grand old party is living in fool’s paradise of winning the elections on false promises. The Union Minister claimed that the Congress’s dreams will be shattered on June 4 after the election result announcement.

Anurag Thakur is contesting Lok Sabha elections 2024 from Hamirpur seat. He said he was confident that BJP will win the election this time as well. He claimed of having support of the people of the constituency. He also said that his victory margin this time would be more than the previous margin of about 4 lakh votes. Thakur who is a 4 time MP also expressed optimism that the BJP-led NDA will win more than 400 seats in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

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2024 Lok Sabha Elections

Rahul Gandhi challenges PM Modi to lift 50% cap on reservation

Rahul Gandhi today addressed a rally at Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, where he said this election is being fought to save the Constitution.

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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi announced today that the party would raise quota benefits for members of Dalit, backward, and tribal communities and lift the 50% restriction on caste-based quotas imposed by the Supreme Court.

Speaking at a election campaign in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, Gandhi said, the Constitution is being defended in this election. “BJP and RSS wish to bring this to a close and alter it. And this is being saved by the Congress and the INDIA bloc. You have rights on jal (water), jangal (forest), and zameen (land) under this Constitution. With a copy of the Constitution in his hand, he declared, “Narendra Modi wants to get rid of them and have total power.

He claimed that if the BJP won, its leaders would change the Constitution. They used the slogan 400 seats for this reason. However, they won’t be getting 150 seats; forget about 400, he added. They promise to eliminate reservations. He would like to inform that going forward, they will surpass the 50% reservation cap. Congress will reserve as much space as is necessary for the underprivileged, the backward, Dalits, and Adivasis, he said.

Gandhi’s comments come with a heated campaign for the Lok Sabha elections and contentious discussions about reservations between the NDA and the INDIA alliance.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP has claimed that the Congress intends to modify the backward class reservation in order to benefit Muslims. The claims have been refuted by the Congress. At a rally in Gujarat, Banaskantha, the PM said, he challenges the shehzada of the Congress as well as his party and its supporters to announce they will never misuse reservation in the name of religion, nor will they play with the Constitution or grant reservation in the name of religion.

Gandhi claimed during the Ratlam rally that stories about crimes against Adivasis are not covered by the media. The media does not report on the rape of your children or the seizure of your land. These media companies do not employ Adivasis, he said.

Meanwhile, Ratlam will vote in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha election on May 13. Former MP and former Union Minister Kantilal Bhuria has been named by the Congress for Ratlam seat. The BJP’s choice from the seat they won in the 2019 election is Anita Nagar Singh Chauhan.

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