A record single-day rise of 2,61,500 cases and 1,501 deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours, Union Health Ministry data of Sunday morning. About a year and 25 days back, on March 24, when India had a total of 564 COVID-19 cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the citizens merely four hours’ notice and shut down the nation. Now, when hospitals are running out of beds, oxygen and ventilators, crucial in treating COVID-19 patients, and long queues of COVID-19 victims are forming outside crematoriums, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the situation does not require a lockdown in a hurry.

“Initially, the purpose of the lockdown was different. We wanted to prepare infrastructure and the line of treatment. We did not have any medicines or a vaccine. The situation is different now,” Shah told the Indian Express in an exclusive interview.   On Sunday, he went about with his public rallies for the West Bengal Assembly polls, addressing people, majority of whom were without a mask. Meanwhile, a minister from the ruling TMC said he won’t hold any large-scale campaigns in view of the rising cases, while Congress leader Rahul Gandhi cancelled his rallies.