NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has directed all states and Union territories to take all necessary measures to promote Covid-19 appropriate behaviour such as wearing face masks, hand hygiene and social distancing.
The MHA letter addressed to states on Friday came amidst rising Covid-19 cases in several parts of the country. The ministry noted that the sudden rise in cases is due to laxity in Covid-19 behaviour.
After the steady decline in Covid-19 cases for about 5 months, for the last few weeks, the number of cases are showing an increasing trend in several parts of the country.

“It has been observed that it is largely due to laxity in the observance of Covid appropriate behaviour by the people, especially in crowded places,” said Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla said in his letter to states.
The ministry also took note of upcoming festivals and holidays and said, “it will be important to ensure the compliance of guidelines.”
“I would therefore urge you to take necessary steps for creating awareness among people to follow Covid-19 appropriate behaviour and take strict actions for enforcement, to fully overcome the pandemic,” said Bhalla.
Covid count tops 40k after 111 days
India’s daily cases of Covid-19 crossed the 40,000 mark for the first time in 111 days on Friday, with as many as 17 states and Union territories adding the highest number of infections since January or earlier.
The seven-day rolling average of daily cases crossed 30,000, rising from 29,350 on Thursday to 31,647, a growth of 7.8%.

The seven-day average has risen by more than 5 per cent for an unprecedented six days in a row, making this the sharpest rise in cases since the pandemic began.
Active cases rose to nearly 2.9 lakh on Friday. A high count of active cases not just indicates a wider spread of the infection, but also increases the probability of a higher number of deaths in the coming days.
Vaccination drive crosses 4 crore mark
Even as Covid-19 cases surge, India has administered more than 4 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses as of Friday. A total of 4,11,55,978 vaccine doses have been given, as per the provisional report on Friday.
These include 76,86,920 health care workers (HCWs) who have taken the 1st dose and 47,69,469 HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose.

As many as 79,10,529 front line workers (FLWs) have taken the first dose and 23,16,922 FLWs have taken the 2nd dose.
Among the beneficiaries, 1,53,78,622 are more than 60 years old and 30,93,516 beneficiaries aged 45 and above with specific co-morbidities.