India reported 261,500 new cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, the fourth consecutive day of more than 200,000 infections and the highest since the start of the pandemic, according to CNN data from the Ministry of Health. ‘India.
The health ministry also reported 1,501 new deaths, the highest in nearly ten months.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a special meeting on Sunday to address the ongoing health crisis caused by the second wave, and called on officials to follow up on testing, follow-up and treatment.
Indian states are facing a lack of oxygen in all hospitals and Modi called for the installation of 162 oxygen plants across the country to be accelerated, according to a press release issued by the Indian office. prime minister.
Some context: The latest rise in cases has led Modi to appeal to pilgrims and religious groups celebrating the Kumbh Mela festival for a whole month to dissolve and symbolically perform the necessary rituals instead of physically congregating in the state of Uttarakhand.
“Now Kumbh should be carried out symbolically in the midst of the ongoing crown crisis,” Modi said on Twitter on Saturday.
The Haridwar Indian district, where the festival takes place, has reported a total of 5,505 cases since the festival started on April 1st.
India reached 13 million on April 9 and added one million more cases in less than a week, surpassing 14 million cases on Thursday. According to the Indian Ministry of Health, India reported a total of 14,788,109 coronavirus cases and 177,150 deaths on Sunday.