Covid-19 spike: Centre rushes team to Maha, Punjab; night curfew imposed in Jalandhar

New Delhi: Amid the spike in number of new Covid-19 cases, the Centre has rushed high-level multi-disciplinary public health teams to Maharashtra and Punjab.

The teams are being deployed to assist the State Health Departments in COVID-19 surveillance, control and containment measures.

The teams will visit the hotspot areas in the States and ascertain the reasons for the surge.

They will also brief the Chief Secretary and Secretary (H) on their observations and remedial measures to be undertaken by the State Health authorities.

These teams will interact with the state and UT authorities and get a first-hand understanding of the challenges and issues being faced by them so as to strengthen their ongoing activities and remove bottlenecks if any.

The ministry further said that the reports of central teams will be shared with the states for further follow-up action.

Over 18,000 Covid-19 cases in past 24 hours

As many as 18,327 new COVID-19 cases and 108 deaths were reported in India in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry informed on Saturday.

The country’s overall COVID-19 cases tally has reached 1,11,92,088, including 1,80,304 active cases while the death toll has mounted to 1,57,656.

According to the health ministry, a total of 1,94,97,704 people have been vaccinated against coronavirus so far.

Night curfew imposed in Jalandhar

Night curfew will be in place from 11 pm to 5 am until further notice in Punjab’s Jalandhar district following the continuous surge in the COVID-19 cases

Curfew has been imposed under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) 1973 and the National Disaster Management Act, 2005.

According to the union health ministry’s update on Saturday morning, Punjab had 6,661 active cases.

As many as 5,898 people have so far lost their lives to COVID-19 in the state.