The Health Ministry reported that the number of beneficiaries aged 60 years and above in the nationwide Covid vaccination drive has crossed one crore in just 15 days. Meanwhile, the total vaccination coverage in India has crossed 3.29 crores.
However, the spread of the infection still continues as India recorded 24,492 new Covid-19 cases, taking the total cases in the country to 1,14,09,831, while the death toll increased to 1,58,856, with 131 fresh fatalities. For the sixth day in a row, India registered more than 20,000 cases.
Among the new cases, Maharashtra accounted for 17,864 new cases. This is the first time this year that over 17,000 Covid-19 cases have been recorded in a single day in the state. The previous highest single-day surge in 2021 was 16,620 on Sunday, March 14.
Besides the new cases, 87 Covid-19 deaths were recorded during the day, taking the state’s death toll to 52,996. The case fatality rate in the state is 2.26%.
The surge in cases in Mumbai also prompted the BMC education department to issue an order asking all schools in its jurisdiction to discontinue the 50% rotational attendance rule from March 17. Teachers are to take their classes in the ‹work from home› mode with the help of e-learning platforms until further orders.
Delhi recorded 425 new Covid-19 cases as its positivity rate rose to 0.61 percent. The death toll climbed to 10,945 with one more fatality. The new coronavirus cases recorded took the infection tally to 6,44,489. The national capital recorded a positivity rate of 0.59 percent.
Goa›s coronavirus caseload went up by 94 and reached 56,100, while the recovery count increased by 73 to touch 54,497. With four deaths in the last 24 hours, the toll in the state is 811, leaving the state with 792 active cases. Jammu and Kashmir recorded 97 fresh Covid-19 cases that pushed its infection tally to 1,27,831, while two more deaths linked to the virus raised the toll to 1,972 in the Union Territory. 19 of the fresh cases are from the Jammu division and 78 from the Kashmir division.
India’s southern states also saw a surge in coronavirus cases. Tamil Nadu reported 867 new cases, taking the state’s infection tally to 8,61,429, while five more fatalities took its death toll to 12,556. The number of active cases stands at 5,450.
Karnataka reported over a thousand cases for the first time since Christmas last year. As many as 1,135 more people contracted the infection in the last 24 hours, indicating a test positivity rate of 1.65 percent. Of these, Bengaluru Urban continued to top the list with 710 new cases and 329 discharges among 30 districts in the state.
Kerala recorded 1,970 new cases of Covid-19 and 15 deaths in the last 24 hours. The active caseload amounted to 26,127 as the death toll rose to 4,422. In the same period, a passenger from South Africa tested positive for Covid-19. This has taken the total number of passengers infected with Covid-19 strains from the UK, South Africa and Brazil to 104.
The surge in fresh coronavirus cases also continued in Andhra Pradesh with 261 people testing positive for the virus in the last 24 hours, pushing the active caseload up to 1,579. The state also saw 125 patients recovering from the infection while no deaths were reported during this period. The Covid-19 caseload in the state is at 8,92,269 with 8,83,505 recoveries and 7,185 deaths. Nationwide, registering a spike in cases, the total active caseload has increased to 2,23,432, which now comprises 1.96 percent of the total infections. Meanwhile, the recovery rate has dropped to 96.65 percent.