Massive spike in Covid cases, Kerala biggest contributor
India on Wednesday logged 37,593 fresh Covid-19 cases, a whopping 47.6 per cent higher than Tuesday’s figure (25,467). The country also reported 648 deaths, a huge jump from the 354 deaths reported a day before. While the Union health ministry said that 24,296 new cases were reported in Kerala, the state government data said that 31,445 new cases had been reported on Wednesday.
Kerala continues to lead the states in daily Covid cases. It state also reported 173 deaths on Wednesday, the most deaths in a day by any state after Maharashtra (288).
Meanwhile, Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said more than two crore additional Covid19 vaccine doses are being made available to states this month, and they have been asked to vaccinate all school teachers on priority before Teachers’ Day on September 5.
The national Covid-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.67 per cent, the ministry said. An increase of 2,776 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. As many as 17,92,755 tests were conducted on Tuesday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for
detection of Covid-19 in the country to 51,11,84,547. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.10 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for the last 30 days.
The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 1.92 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 61 days, according to the ministry.
Schools across the country were closed in March last year ahead of a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of novel coronavirus infection.
The Centre had allowed reopening of schools as per the Covid-19 situation in October last year. While several states began partial reopening of schools, there was a complete closure again in April when an aggressive second wave of Covid-19 hit the country.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,17,54,281, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.
Cumulatively, 59.55 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered under the nationwide vaccination drive till Wednesday morning.
India’s Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020.