COVID-19 Containment Measures to be Continued Till June 30: MHA

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has directed the states and Union Territories to ensure compliance to containment measures for COVID-19 till June 30.

The MHA issued an order on Thursday to the Secretaries of Ministries and Departments of Government of India and the Chief Secretaries and Administrators of all state and Union Territories and asked them to ensure compliance of the containment measures for COVID-I9, as conveyed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on April 25.

"In exercise of the powers, conferred under Section 10(2)(I) of the Disaster Management Act 2005, the undersigned hereby directs that Ministry of Home Affairs' Order of even number dated April 29, to ensure compliance to the containment measures for COVID-I9, as conveyed vide Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) DO No. Z.28015/85/2021-DM Cell dated April 25, will remain in force up to June 30," the order said.

According to the guidelines issued by MoHFW on April 25, states and UTs were asked to take prompt and targeted action on specific districts/cities/areas in order to flatten the curve of the pandemic where a test positivity rate of 10 percent or more was reported over the past week or where over 60 percent of the ICU beds are occupied.

India recorded 179,770 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the lowest daily count in 44 days, as infections continued to decrease in the country. The daily death toll, however, remained over the 3,000-mark, with 3,558 deaths. India's total cases now stand at 27,547,705, while total fatalities are at 318,821, Worldometer showed this morning.

With 33,361 cases reported in the past 24 hours, Tamil Nadu is leading the state list. It is followed by Karnataka with 24,214 new infections. Kerala reported 24,166 cases. Maharashtra 21,273 cases, and Andhra Pradesh 16,167 cases. The case count was 13,046 for West Bengal. Meanwhile, Delhi reported 153 cases of mucormycosis (black fungus) today, exceeding the total number of cases from 620 to 773.

The six most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (5,672,180), Karnataka (2,523,998), Kerala (2,448,554), Tamil Nadu (1,978,621), Uttar Pradesh (1,680,684), and Andhra Pradesh (1,643,557).

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