In Fight Against Covid, Central Teams Rushed To Punjab, Himachal, UP

High-level central teams have been sent to four more states -- Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh -- to help the state governments tackle the Covid surge. Last week, the Union Government has sent teams to Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Manipur. All these states have been either reporting a rise in the number of active cases.

"These three-member teams will visit the districts reporting high number of COVID-19 cases and support the state efforts towards strengthening containment, surveillance, testing, infection prevention and control measures, and efficient clinical management of the positive cases. The Central teams shall also guide in effectively managing the challenges related to timely diagnosis and follow up," the government said in a statement.

Over the last 24 hours, the number of coronavirus cases in the country rose by 45,209, taking the total number of infections to 90.95 lakh, government data showed. Delhi continues to be the worst-affected in terms of daily spike, which has remained on an upward spiral since the last week of October.

The authorities in Haryana's Gurgaon and Faridabad, and Gautam Budh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, have started random testing of people coming into the cities from Delhi.

Some cities in Rajasthan -- Including Jodhpur, Kota, Bikaner, Udaipur, Ajmer, Alwar, Bhilwara and state capital Jaipur -- have imposed a night curfew amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in the state. No one except those providing essential and emergency services will be allowed to be on roads between 8 pm and 6 am in the state.

The hill state of Himachal Pradesh has seen close to 38,000 cases. The number of fatalities crossed the 500-mark on Saturday, with 18 more people succumbing to the infection, health department data showed. The number of infections stands at 33,701 with 915 new cases and 510 people have died.

In Punjab,  4,595 people have died from the disease. On Saturday, data showed that 719 people tested positive over 24 hours, pushing the infection tally to 1,45,667.

Uttar Pradesh also registered a high number of cases and deaths With 24 fatalities in the state over the last 24 hours, the total rose to 7,524. The number of cases surged to 5,24,223 with 2,326 new infections.

Chhattisgarh's coronavirus count climbed to 2,21,688 on Saturday after 2,284 people tested positive over 24 hours. With 22 more deaths, the state has logged 2,713 fatalities.