New Delhi: India recorded 14,989 new cases and 98 deaths in the past 24 hours, with Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka accounting for 85.95% of the cases, the health ministry data showed.
Maharashtra reported the highest daily case count with 7,863, followed by Kerala at 2,938 and Punjab at 729 cases. Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Karnataka also had the maximum weekly increase, government data showed.
Maharashtra accounted for a weekly increase of 16,012 cases, and Punjab reported a weekly increase of 71.5% or 1,783 cases. India’s total active caseload stood at 170,126, or 1.53% of total positive cases.
Four states accounted for 88.78% of fresh fatalities. Mah-arashtra reported 54 deaths, followed by Kerala (16), Punjab (10) in the past 24 hours.
According to the World Health Organization’s weekly epidemiological update released on Tuesday, in the past week, in South-East Asia, India was one of the three countries reporting the highest numbers of new cases with (105,080), or 7.6 cases per 100,000, along with Indonesia and Sri Lanka. India was among the three nations reporting the highest number of deaths at 749, or 0.1 death per 100,000 population, followed by Indonesia and Nepal.
“With a rise in the number of cases that have been observed in many states due to experiences from other countries gives us a hint that reinfections might crop up again, as has been observed in many states such as Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Jammu Kashmir as well,” said Suresh Sharma, head, Population Research Centre, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University.
“The increase in the number of cases being observed in these states could be due to many reasons such as easing of norms for several economic activities to revamp the economy. Besides, rules for social activities have also been eased across the states,” he added.
Since the start of the vaccination drive on 16 January, 1,63,14,485 vaccine doses have been administered, as per the provisional report released on Wednesday at 7pm. So far, 67,75,619 healthcare workers have taken the first dose, while 28,24,311 have received the second dose. Besides, 57,62,131 frontline workers were given the first dose, and 3,277 got the second dose. Since the start of the second phase of the vaccination programme on 1 March, 844,884 beneficiaries aged 60 years or more, and 104,263 beneficiaries aged 45 or more with co-morbidities have received the jab, health ministry data showed.
On Wednesday, 692,889 doses were administered till 7 pm, out of which 579,366 were vaccinated for the first dose, while 113,523 HCWs and FLWs received their second doses, as per the provisional report.
