Covid-19: Six states including Punjab account for over 85% of fresh cases

Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka continue to report a surge in daily new COVID-19 cases, accounting for 85.51 per cent of fresh cases, the Union Health ministry said on Thursday.

A total of 17,407 new infections have been registered in a day.

Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 9,855. This is the highest number recorded in the state since October 18 when 10,259 new cases were reported.

It is followed by Kerala with 2,765 while Punjab reported 772 new cases.The total number of cases with UK,SouthAfricaand Brazilvariants of SARS-CoV-2 in the country as on date has reached 242, the ministry said.

India's total COVID-19 active caseload has reached 1,73,413 comprising1.55 per cent of India's total cases.

"Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh are showing a rise in active cases," the ministrysaid.

Showcasing thechange in active cases for states and UTs in a span of 24 hours, the ministry saidKerala, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam witnessed a reduction in the active cases in 24 hours.

However, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat displayed a rise in active cases during the same time period, it said.

India's cumulative recovered cases are following a steadily rising trajectory and have surged to1,08,26,075.

More than 1.66 crore vaccine doses have been administered through3,23,064 sessions,as per the provisional report till Thursday 7 am.

These include67,90,808 health care workers (HCWs 1st dose), 28,72,725 HCWs (2nd dose),58,03,856 front line workers (FLWs 1stdose) and 4,202 FLWs (2nd Dose), 1,43,759 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities (1st dose) and 10,00,698 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years.

As on day-47 of the vaccination drive (March 3), nearly 10 lakh vaccine doses were given. Of these, 8,31,590 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 10,849 sessions for 1st dose (HCWs and FLWs) and 1,62,862 HCWs and FLWs received 2nd dose of vaccine.

Besides, 89 deaths were reported in a span of24 hours.

Six states account for 88.76 per centof the new deaths.

Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (42). Kerala follows with 15 daily deaths and Punjab reported 12 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Twenty-three states and UTs have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Puducherry, Assam, Lakshadweep, Nagaland, Sikkim, Ladakh, Tripura, Andaman Nicobar Islands, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Arunachal Pradesh.