India reports 5,357 fresh Covid-19 cases in last 24 hours

NEW DELHI: A total of 5,357 fresh Covid-19 infections were recorded in the country in the last 24 hours marking a slight decrease from Saturday's count of 6,155 cases, the Union Health Ministry stated in a bulletin on Sunday.

Covid infections in the country have seen an upward trend in the past few days, with the daily fresh infections at 2,994 on April 1, 3,824 on April 2, 3,641 on April 3, 3,038 on April 4, 4,435 on April 5, 5,335 on April 6 and 6,050 on April 7 and 6155 on April 8. The overall active cases currently stand at 32,814, as of Sunday, with the daily positivity rate at 3.39 per cent, the Health Ministry stated further in its release.

With 3,726 recoveries in the last 24 hours, the overall count stood at 4,41,92,837, the bulletin stated, adding that the overall recovery rate is currently at 98.74 per cent. Under the nationwide vaccination drive, a total of 220.66 crore vaccine doses have been administered, as of Sunday, of which 659 doses were administered in the last 24 hours.

In the wake of the rising number of Covid-19 cases, the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud earlier in the week said lawyers are free to appear virtually in court. CJI Chandrachud said newspaper reports show that Covid cases are on the rise and if a lawyer wants to appear virtually before the court they can and the hybrid mode is also on.

"We saw newspaper reports on rising Covid cases. Lawyers can use hybrid mode. If you choose to appear online, we will hear you," said the CJI.

The Supreme Court had reverted to the physical hearing mode of adjudication of cases from April 4, 2022, after taking into account the low infection rate and the number of Covid cases in Delhi and across the country. The apex court has been successfully experimenting with the hybrid method -- a combination of physical and virtual -- of hearing for quite some time. The Supreme Court has also started live-streaming the Constitution bench proceedings through the Supreme Court app and YouTube even after the resumption of physical hearings. The ministry further stated that the weekly positivity rate currently stands at 3.54 per cent.

Amid a nationwide upward trend in the Covid cases, Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday chaired a review meeting with health ministers of all states and Union Territories through video conferencing. Mandaviya urged state health ministers to conduct mock drills at hospitals on April 10 and 11 to assess their preparedness in handling a surge in cases. He also urged states to identify emerging hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) cases and sending sufficient samples for testing of COVID-19 and Influenza; and ramping up whole genome sequencing of positive samples. (ANI)

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