Highlights: Covid makes a comeback in India; Narendra Modi government on alert

• Mandaviya stressed on identifying emergency hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) cases,
• He pressed for ramping up testing and vaccination and ensuring readiness of hospital infrastructure.
• Along with enhancing genome sequencing and ramping up whole genome sequencing of positive samples, he also emphasised on creating awareness about following Covid-appropriate behaviour.
• The Centre and the states need to continue working in collaborative spirit as was done during the previous surges for COVID-19 prevention and management, Mandaviya said.

During the meeting convened to assess the Covid situation in India, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya urged the state health ministers to conduct mock drills of all hospital infrastructure on April 10 and April 11 and review the health preparedness with district administrations and health officials on April 8 and 9.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday urged the Centre to provide fresh stocks of Covid vaccine vials so that administering of jabs, which is currently on hold, could be resumed, according to PTI news agency.

Talking to reporters here on the sidelines of a function, he also asserted that his government was "alert" in view of rising incidence of Covid cases in some parts of the country, though Bihar was not one of them.

"Our testing rate is much higher than the national average, which is six lakh tests per one million people. We are conducting eight lakh tests. Bihar accounts for about one fourth of the total number of tests conducted across the country", Kumar claimed. 

He said that the current spike was noticed in those parts of the country which were the worst affected when the coronavirus had caused a global pandemic.

Delhi logs 606 fresh Covid cases, positivity rate at 16.98 per cent: Health bulletin

"Wearing of masks in public places is mandatory in Puducherry," says District Collector E.Vallavan, amid the COVID-19 surge in the country.

As many 71 fresh cases were reported in Puducherry in the past 24 hours, even as sctive cases stand at 206.

Union health minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya holds a review meeting with health ministers of states/UTs on the COVID-19 situation.

Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, on Friday said the Centre has been regularly issuing guidelines to the states and Union Territories amid a nationwide upward spiral in the Covid-19 cases.Speaking to ANI, Pawar said, "The Centre has been issuing guidelines to states and UTs regularly in view of the spike in Covid cases. PM Modi also held a review meeting with all states and UTs to assess their Covid preparedness."

The state also reported 192 fresh Covid cases during the day while 68 patients recovered in the state, including one in state capital Lucknow. At present, there are 842 active Covid cases in the state.

An elderly woman, who had tested positive for Covid-19 on April 2, died during treatment on Thursday while 35 more people tested positive for Covid-19 in Lucknow, IANS news agency reported.

India has logged 6,050 fresh coronavirus cases, the highest in 203 days, while the active cases have increased to 28,303, according to Union health ministry data updated on Friday.

On September 16 last year, 6,298 cases were recorded.

The death toll has increased to 5,30,943 with 14 deaths -- three reported from Maharashtra, two each from Karnataka and Rajasthan, one each from Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, and one was reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated.