India’s COVID-19 active cases currently stand at 1,51,708, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday. Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh are responsible for the surge in daily cases, it outlined. The ministry said 89.57 per cent of the new cases are from seven states.
While the country’s daily cases remained below 15,000 for two straight months, for the past few consecutive days India has recorded over 16,000 cases. A total of 16,738 new daily cases have been recorded in a span of 24 hours.
Maharashtra, which is country’s worst hit state by the pandemic, continue to report the highest daily new cases at 8,807. It is followed by Kerala with 4,106 cases while Punjab has logged around 558 new cases.
Many states have even released new guidelines from five states, making RT PCR negative report mandatory. The Centre has also send three-member special teams to these seven states to monitor the covid-19 situation.
The Health Ministry has also asked all the states which are witnessing covid surge to actively conduct covid-19 testing and take precautionary measures to break the infection chain. Those who have tested positive for the infection should either be isolated or be hospitalised. Their close contacts must be traced and also get tested without delay, the Centre said.
As of 7 am, a cumulative total of 1,26,71,163 people have been vaccinated through 2,64,315 sessions, as per the provisional report. These include 65,47,831 healthcare workers (HCWs 1st dose), 16,16,348 HCWs (2nd dose) and 45,06,984 frontline workers (FLWs 1st dose).
Eight states account for more than 56 per cent of the total vaccine doses, the Centre added. India’s cumulative recoveries stand at 1,07,38,50, it mentioned.
“The gap between total recovered cases and the active cases is constantly rising and stands at 10,586,793 today. A total of 11,799 recoveries were registered in a span of 24 hours,” the ministry said.