Modi to hold COVID-19 review meeting with 7 CMs
What's the story
As the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow rapidly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to hold a review meeting with the Chief Ministers of seven states and union territories.
Notably, India is currently in the fourth phase of "unlocking" from the coronavirus lockdown—dubbed 'Unlock 4.0'—even as the number of cases surged past 54 lakh on Sunday.
Here are more details.
Meeting
Delhi, Maharashtra to attend meeting
PM Modi will discuss the coronavirus situation with the CMs of 7 states/UTs on September 23 via video conferencing.
The seven states/UTs include Delhi, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh, NDTV reported.
Sources told PTI that the CM of Uttar Pradesh is also expected to attend the meeting.
These states are notably the regions where the outbreak has not slowed down or continues to get worse.
Outbreak
India's Health Ministry reports over 54 lakh cases
As of 8 am on Sunday, the Union Health Ministry had confirmed a total of 54,00,619 COVID-19 cases, after witnessing a spike of 92,605 fresh infections in the past 24 hours.
The total cases include 10,10,824 active cases and 43,03,043 recoveries. The death toll also rose to 86,752 with 1,133 fresh fatalities in the past 24 hours, the data showed.
Information
60% of total infections concentrated in 5 states
Notably, about 60% of India's total coronavirus infections are concentrated in the five states worst affected by the outbreak: Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh. India is the world's second-worst nation after the United States.
Trend
30% of total cases reported in September alone
In September, India has reported over 90,000 daily new cases almost every day; witnessing a record single-day jump of 97,894 cases between September 16 to 17.
The positivity rate has notably increased from 7.5% in mid-July to 10.58%.
This month alone, the nation has reported a total of 16,86,769 new cases, almost a third of the cumulative case tally.