Amidst a fast vaccination drive across the country, India seems going back to the last November pattern in the matter of new Coronavirus infection daily increase. It is worrying that 40,953 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, the highest single-day rise recorded in the last 111 days, taking the nationwide Covid tally to 1,15,55,284, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.
Registering an increase in the tenth day in a row, the total active caseload has reached 2,88,394, which now comprises 2.49 per cent of the total infections, while the recovery rate has further dropped to 96.12 per cent, the data stated.
India registered over one lakh cases in just three days. On Friday, 39,726 new cases were registered while 35,871 fresh cases were registered on Thursday.
The daily rise in infections (40,953) was the highest recorded in 111 days, while the death toll increased to 1,59,558 with 188 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. On November 29 last year, 41,810 new infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours.
In Jammu Kashmir, the picture is also not good. About 120 to over 200 cases an average are being reported on a daily basis and reporting 1-2 deaths in a day. Today also 140 new positive cases of novel Coronavirus 25 from Jammu division and 115 from Kashmir division, have been reported, thus taking the total number of positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir to 128389. Also, 01 COVID-19 death has been reported from Kashmir Division. The figures reported in J&K may not be accurate as no official testing drive is being conducted in the Union Territory and also because the people in general, has been avoiding going to the Hospital and preferring taking the treatment at home quarantine thus not counted in the overall infected number.
According to ICMR, 23,24,31,517 samples have been tested up to March 19 with 10,60,971 samples being tested on Friday.
The 188 new fatalities include 70 deaths from Maharashtra, 38 from Punjab and 17 from Kerala. In our neighbouring Punjab, the government has started taking strict measure and go to the extent of shutting down education institutions in some districts those reported in a quick rise in the infected cases.
So far, 1,59,558 deaths have been reported in the country, including 53,208 from Maharashtra, 12,582 from Tamil Nadu, 12,425 from Karnataka, 10,953 from Delhi, 10,301 from West Bengal, 8,757 from Uttar Pradesh and 7,187 from Andhra Pradesh.
The Union Health Ministry claimed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths in Corona cases occurred due to comorbidities.
“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,11,07,332, while the case fatality rate stood at 1.38 per cent, the data stated.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) continuously supporting the use of the Covid-19 vaccines as the benefits outweigh its risks. Vaccination against Covid-19 will not reduce illness or deaths from other causes.
The states and union territories should, therefore, vigorously expedite the speed of vaccination covering more mobile segments of the society and at the same time should enforce strict measures like wearing masks and observance of physical distance in management of daily civic life lest we may face the second phase of Corona is visible in Maharastra.
