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Following a sudden spike in the number of coronavirus cases in the country, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Wednesday announced that soon they will conduct random COVID-19 tests of passengers coming from states where there has been a surge in cases recently. According to the official data, the national capital on Wednesday reported 1,819 new Covid-19 cases from over 67,000 samples tested in the last 24 hours, taking its overall tally to 6,62,430, according to the health bulletin of the Delhi government, while 11 deaths pushed the city's cumulative death toll to 11,027. Earlier this week, the centre had confirmed that there will be no lockdown imposed in the city and people will have to learn to stay with the virus and maintain the basic pandemic protocols to stop the spread.
On testing at the Delhi airport, a state government on Wednesday official said, "We random test people to know if asymptomatic people are carrying the virus into the state. Though it is not binding on anyone to go through random testing, everyone has a responsibility to do so as a dutiful citizen of the country."
This comes a day after the Centre had stated that the COVID-19 situation is turning from "bad to worse" and is a huge cause for worry, especially for some states, warning that the whole country is at risk and any complacency at this stage will have "heavy costs".
The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) stated on Twitter on Wednesday, "As per the latest government mandate, DDMA shall conduct random COVID-19 testing of passengers coming from the states where cases are increasing." It went on to add that, "After the collection of samples, the travellers would be allowed to exit. However, the passengers who were found to be positive shall be mandatorily quarantined as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare protocol."
Kind attention to all the domestic flyers arriving to #DelhiAirportpic.twitter.com/nnsh1AFDCB
Delhi Airport (@DelhiAirport) March 31, 2021
Currently, six states are experiencing a sudden spurt in the cases Maharashtra tops the list, followed by Punjab, Karnataka, Kerala and Chhattisgarh. All these six states have reported a high number of daily COVID-19 cases and account for 78.56 per cent of the 56,211 fresh cases recorded in the country in a day, the Union health ministry had said on Tuesday. "Five states namely Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab and Chhattisgarh cumulatively account for 79.30% of the total active cases in the country. Maharashtra leads with more than 61% of the active caseload of the country," the ministry said in a statement.
The Ministry went on to add that Eight states of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh have also reported a surge in the COVID daily new cases with 84.73 per cent of the new cases reported from these states.
India's total Active Caseload has reached 5,52,566. It now comprises 4.55 per cent of the country's total positive cases. Fourteen states/UTs have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are Rajasthan, Assam, Odisha, Ladakh (UT), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim, Lakshadweep, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.
Health experts and doctors have attributed this "sudden rise" in cases to people becoming complacent, not following COVID-appropriate behaviour and "assuming all is well now". According to the experts, the next two-three months could be challenging, they said, adding the situation can be kept under control if vaccination is opened up for more people and COVID-19 protocols are strictly adhered to.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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