Hindu Daily Digest - Editor's Pick: second wave of COVID-19?

(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)

The Central government has asked 5 States and a Union Territory that are seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases to step up RT-PCR tests and containment measures. India has had a rising active caseload in the last few days, and 74 per cent of the cases are from Kerala and Maharashtra. Eighty per cent of the new deaths are being reported from 5 States — Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Maharashtra has now announced a ban on religious, social and political gatherings. The State recently saw a local body election and marriage events have also picked up in the State. It is not only urban centres such as Mumbai and Pune, but also rural areas such as the Vidarbha region that are registering a spike. In Kerala, which is seeing a high test positivity rate, scientists are conducting genome sequencing to check whether a new strain of the virus is active in the State. A virus variant is a possible reason for cases to rise in an area where it had plateaued.

Vaccinations in India are also not proceeding at a satisfactory rate. While nearly 2 million vaccinations a day will be required to meet the target of 300 million people receiving two doses of the vaccine by July, the current weekly average is 0.38 million per day. The rate of delivery of the second dose of the vaccine has also been a concern.

The rising possibility of a second wave of infections in the country, with a vaccination drive that is struggling to keep pace, is what makes this story important.

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