New Delhi, Apr 19 (IANS): Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said that the Centre is working together with states to protect lives and livelihoods.

In a tweet, the Minister said that she has spoken to business leaders and took their views on industry-related matters.

"Spoke on the telephone with each of the following business/Chamber leaders. Took their inputs on industry/Association related matters. Informed them that GoI at various levels from @PMOIndia is responding to #Covid management. Working together with states for lives and livelihoods," she said.

The statement comes at a time when India has been reported the highest single-day spike in fresh Covid cases every other day and cities and states are going back to curfews and lockdowns.

India has reported 2,73,810 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day spike ever, pushing the country's overall Covid tally to 1.5 crore, according to the Health Ministry data released on Monday.

This is the fifth consecutive day that the country has registered over two lakh Covid cases taking the total tally to 1,50,61,919 cases.