States in emergency huddle after surge in Covid-19 cases
SHARP UPTICK IN INFECTIONS AFTER SIGNIFICANT DROP WORRIES GOVERNMENT
India’s cabinet secretary chaired a high-level review meeting yesterday with representatives of eight states and union territories where Covid-19 cases have soared in recent days, health ministry said.
The states showing a surge in infections are Telangana, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal. India’s total Covid-19 active caseload is 1,59,590 which is 1.44 per cent of the total infections. As many as 113 people died of the virus yesterday.
Six states — Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat — have been hit particularly hard since yesterday. Maharashtra alone recorded 8,333 new infections followed by Kerala (3,671) and Punjab with 622 cases.
The ministry said 85.75 per cent of 16,488 new cases registered in a span of 24 hours are from six states and UTs. “Eight states are displaying an upward trajectory in daily new cases,” the ministry said. “In the last two weeks, Kerala has shown the maximum decline in the number of active cases, from 63,847 on February 14 to 51,679 yesterday while Maharashtra has shown the highest rise in the same period, from 34,449 on February 14 to 68,810 currently,” the ministry said.
Vaccination drive
A total of 1,42,42,547 vaccine doses have been administered through 2,92,312 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7am yesterday. These include 66,68,974 health care workers (HCWs) who were administered the first dose and 24,53,878
HCWs who were given the second dose besides 51,19,695 front line workers (FLWs) who took the first dose.
More than 65 per cent front line workers have been vaccinated in 12 states and UTs. These are Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Lakshadweep, Rajasthan, Kerala and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
Recovery rate
“India’s Covid-19 recovery rate of 97.17 per cent is among the highest in the world,” the ministry said. It said 84.79 per cent recoveries from new cases have been reported from six states and UTs since yesterday.
Maharashtra (4,936) leads the tally of recoveries followed by Kerala and Karnataka.