India saw the highest single day spike of new Covid-19 infections this year, with the country reporting as many as 23,285 new cases in the last 24 hours, according to latest Health Ministry data.

Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu continue to report a surge in daily cases. These States cumulatively account for 85.6 per cent of the new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.

While Maharashtra reported the highest daily new cases at 14,317 (61.48 per cent of the daily new cases), Kerala followed with 2,133 and Punjab with 1,305 cases. Nagpur in Maharashtra has gone in for a complete lockdown from March 15-21.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh has been seeing an increase in Covid-19 cases in the last one week. According to a bulletin released by the State government on Friday, out of 44,709 samples tested in the last 24 hours, 210 tested positive. After dropping to below 100 for a few days last week, Covid cases have been on the rise again, with the number of samples being tested remaining more or less the same. On March 9 and 10, the Covid tally was at 118 and 120 respectively.

The National Capital Delhi too saw a surge in new cases: the number of cases reported on Friday was 431 — the highest single-day rise in nearly two months. Delhi had reported 409 new cases on Thursday.

India’s total active case load reached 1,97,237 on Friday. The active case load now stands at 1.74 per cent of the total positive cases. Five States cumulatively account for 82.96 per cent of the total active cases in the country. Maharashtra and Kerala constitute 71.69 per cent of the country’s total active cases.

Vaccination drive

As many as 4,80,740 doses were administered on Day 55 of the vaccination drive (March 11). About 4,02,138 beneficiaries were vaccinated with the first dose (healthcare workers and frontline workers) and about 78,602 healthcare workers (HCW) and frontline workers (FLW) received the second dose.

The vaccination drive was on a low key on Thursday due to Maha Shivratri celebrations, the release added.

More than 2.61 crore (2,61,64,920) vaccine doses have been administered since January 16 (when the drive started) till 7 am on Friday as per the provisional report . These include 72,23,071 and 40,56,285 HCWs (first and second dose); 71,21,124 and 6,72,794 FLWs (first and second dose); 10,30,612 beneficiaries aged more than 45 with specific co-morbidities (first dose); and 60,61,034 beneficiaries aged more than 60.

Actively engaged

The Centre is actively engaging with all State and UT governments, especially those showing an upsurge in daily new cases and with a high case load of active cases, an official release said.

Recently, the Centre rushed high-level public health teams to Maharashtra and Punjab to assist in Covid-19 control and containment measures in view of the recent spike in cases.

The Centre had earlier deputed high-level teams to Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Jammu and Kashmir to support them in their fight against thespike in COVID-19 cases.

The reports of the central teams are shared with the States for follow-up action. The follow-up and compliance on the part of States are, in turn, monitored by the Health Ministry.

More than 1.09 crore (1,09,53,303) people have recovered so far. As many as 15,157 have recovered and been discharged in the last 24 hours.

 

As many as 117 deaths due to Covid were reported in the last 24 hours. Six States account for 82.91 per cent of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (57), Punjab follows with 18 deaths and Kerala with 13 deaths in the last 24 hours.

 

With inputs from Hyderabad, Mumbai Bureaus

 

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