COVID situation in India going from bad to worse: Health official

Health ministry tells states to get a grip on lax prevention measures ‘right now’ to avoid overwhelming hospitals.

The situation with the COVID-19 pandemic in India is going “from bad to worse,” a senior government official has said. “We are facing an increasingly severe and intense situation, more so surely in some districts. But the whole country is potentially at risk,” Vinod K Paul, chairman of the government’s expert panel on vaccine administration said at the weekly health ministry briefing on Tuesday. India on Wednesday reported 53,480 new cases of the coronavirus, health ministry data showed – the second day that cases have risen less than the day before.