HomeIndia NewsIndia reports highest COVID-19 cases in 102 days; experts caution on emergence of second wave

India reports highest COVID-19 cases in 102 days; experts caution on emergence of second wave

For the first time in more than 100 days, India has reported nearly 36,000 coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours. This comes just a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautioned against the "emerging second wave" after a huddle with chief ministers.

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By Shereen Bhan  March 18, 2021, 6:29:44 PM IST (Updated)

For the first time in more than 100 days, India has reported nearly 36,000 coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours. This comes just a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautioned against the "emerging second wave" after a huddle with chief ministers.


The last time India saw daily cases near 36,000 was on December 3, last year. Since then, cases had steadily declined, even hitting 8,600 infections at the beginning of February. However, since the start of March, cases have started to inch higher.

Maharashtra alone accounts for 65 percent of the new cases. The state reported more than 23,000 cases in the last 24 hours. Kerala and Punjab are reporting over 2,000 cases followed by Karnataka and Gujarat. These four states along with Tamil Nadu account for over 80 percent of the new infections.

Seventy districts in 16 states are reporting a 150 percent jump in active cases since the beginning of March. Nine out of the top 10 worst affected districts are in Maharashtra. Pune has the highest case load in the country with over 32,000 active cases followed by Nagpur, Mumbai, Thane and Nashik.

Mumbai’s Mayor Kishori Pednekar said it has become necessary to impose night curfew in the city on the back of rise in COVID cases. The city reported over 2,300 new cases in the last 24 hours.

The Punjab government has extended the night curfew timings by two hours in nine worst-affected districts. Night curfew would now be in place from 9 pm to 5 am instead of 11 pm to 5 am in these districts, which include Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana. Punjab has reported over 2,000 new cases in the last 24 hours.

The Uttar Pradesh police has imposed Section 144 in Noida till April 30. Precautionary measure comes ahead of Holi, Good Friday, Ram Navami and Navratri. Section 144 has already been imposed in Ghaziabad till May 25.

However, India has administered nearly 4 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. With this, the country has managed to inoculate about 2.8 percent of the total population.

To discuss the rise in infections and what measures need to be taken, CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan spoke to Dr. NK Arora, the head of the operations research group which is a part of the National COVID Task Force set up by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). He is also an adviser to the AEFI National Committee.

She also spoke to Dr. Rajib Dasgupta, chairperson at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is also a member of the National AEFI committee.

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