India reports over 1.31 lakh daily cases in new high, 780 deaths

NEW DELHI, Apr 9
As many as 1,31,968 more people tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tally to 1,30,60,542, said the Union Health Ministry on Friday.
This is the third day in the row that the number of positive cases has crossed the 1 lakh mark since April 7.
This is the biggest jump in new infections the country has reported since the outbreak of the disease. The last biggest jump was of 1,26,789 new cases on Thursday.
The Central Government had stated on Thursday that ten States-- Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Kerala and Punjab--have shown a steep rise in the daily Covid-19 cases.
Among these, Maharashtra continues to be the biggest contributor to the daily tally as the State saw 59,907 new infections on Thursday. It is followed by Chhattisgarh with 10,310 while Karnataka reported 6,976 new cases.
In addition to this, 780 more people succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours. The death toll now stands at 1,67,642.
This is the biggest jump in the fatality count India has reported in the last six months.
A total of 61,899 have recuperated from the disease, taking the total number of recoveries to 1,19,13,292.
As a result, the number of active cases has reached 9,79,608. The country had breached the nine-lakh mark in active tally on Thursday and crossed over eight-lakh cases on Wednesday.
India has tested 25,40,41,584 samples for Covid-19 until now, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Out of these, 13,64,205 samples were tested on Thursday.
Containment measures
Several States have restricted the movement of people, in the form of night curfews or weekend curfews, to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The Maharashtra Government has imposed a night curfew from 8 pm to 7 am till 30 April. There will also be a weekend lockodown all through the month.
In Delhi, the administration has put in place a seven-hour night curfew, from 10 pm to 5 am, till 30 April.
Vaccination in India
The vaccination figure crossed the nine-crore mark on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called States to observe a 'vaccine festival' between 11 and 14 April to inoculate the maximum number of eligible beneficiaries against Covid-19.
Modi asked the Chief Ministers to focus on micro-containment zones and reiterated the mantra of test, track, treat besides pushing Covid-appropriate behaviour and Covid-management to bring down the peak.
On the other hand, several States have raised issues regarding shortage of vaccines.
Pune's Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has temporarily stopped its inoculation drive for Friday due to the non-availability of Covid-19 vaccine doses. Odisha Health Minister Naba Kishore Das also said on Thursday that the State has a stock of Covid-19 vaccine only for the next two days.
"Right now we have 5.34 lakh doses. We administer 2.5 lakh vaccines daily. So, our stock will last for 2 more days. We've written to the Centre to send us a minimum of 25 lakh vaccines for 10 days so that we can vaccinate properly," Das told news agency ANI. The Mint