The Centre, amid complaints of shortage in vaccine by Maharashtra, has decided to send 17 lakh doses instead of the earlier-promised 7.3 lakh.
Informing about this, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that the state should get more of the vaccine as Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are getting over 40 lakh does, Gujarat over 30 lakh and Harayana over 24 lakh.
Meanwhile, the Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday announced a weekend lockdown from 6 pm on Friday to 6 am on Monday in a move to control the steep surge in coronavirus cases in the state.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said “appropriate action” will be taken for cities witnessing a rise in cases after a meeting. “For cities where cases have increased, appropriate action will be taken after meeting of the crisis management group. We are making containment areas in big cities,” he added.
India detected 1,26,789 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, the highest so far.
Of the total, Maharashtra recorded a new high of 59,907 cases, while Chhattisgarh’s count went past the 10,000-mark for the first time.
Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, too, reported more than 6,000 cases.
The country also recorded 685 related deaths. India’s caseload now stands at 1,29,28,574, of which 8,43,473 are active cases and 1,18,51,393 people have recovered from the virus.
Surjitt Sahani
