According to the Union Health Ministry data published on Monday morning, India reported 46,951 new Covid-19 cases, 21,180 recoveries and 212 deaths in the preceding 24 hours.
All of this as the Central government on Monday revised the interval between two doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine. According to the new recommendation, the second dose of the vaccine must be provided at 4-8 weeks’ interval after receiving the first dose. Earlier, the dosage was being provided at an interval of 4-6 weeks. The decision of revised time interval between two doses is applicable only to Covishield, and not to Covaxin, it further clarified.
This comes amid reports of possible side-effects of the vaccine and its suspension in some European countries. However, the government had said there was “no signal of concern” regarding its use in the country as of now.
Gujarat recorded its highest single-day spike of 1,640 coronavirus cases on Monday which took the caseload to 2,88,649, the state health department said. The previous record of daily increase in the state was of November 27 when 1,607 new cases had come to light. Four patients died on Monday, two each in Ahmedabad and Surat, raising the number of Covid-19 fatalities to 4,454. On the other hand, 1,110 patients recovered, taking the total of recovered cases to 2,76,348.
A day after recording its highest ever cases by crossing the 30,000 mark, Maharashtra on Monday saw 24,645 cases on Monday. The recovery rate in the state is 89.22% as the total active case load in the state is at 2,15,241.
Amid surge in Maharashtra, state health minister Rajesh Tope on Monday said 85% of all coronavirus cases in the state were asymptomatic and that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was “very worried” about the increase in the number of cases and urged people to follow Covid-19 guidelines to avoid imposing lockdown in the state. “The Chief Minister is very worried about the situation in the state. He has
requested people to behave responsibly to avoid Covid-19; otherwise, the government will have to resort to imposing a lockdown. People must adhere to the guidelines,” Tope said.
Andhra Pradesh reported 310 fresh cases of coronavirus, 114 recoveries besides two deaths in the 24 hours ending 9 am on Monday and the government has decided to introduce half-day school system from April 1 following the spike in infections and rise in temperature.
Active cases in Kerala touched 24,081 as the state recorded 1,239 new coronavirus cases and 1,766 recoveries on Monday. The toll mounted to 4,507 with 12 more additional deaths. Six health workers were among those who tested positive. While the coronavirus caseload rose to 11,05,816, as many as 10,76,571 people have been cured of the disease, Health minister K.K. Shailaja said in a press release.
Karnataka reported 1,445 new cases with 10 deaths on Monday. The recoveries in the state were 661 with the total active cases being 14,267.
Chandigarh reported 208 new cases taking the total number of cases to 24,667. The number of active cases now stands at 1,979 and death toll stands at 36. This comes as the directorate of education has said that all educational institutions in Chandigarh (schools and colleges) shall remain closed till March 31, but the entire teaching and non-teaching staff shall continue to attend on all working days.
Uttarakhand reported 104 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 98,552 in the state on Monday, said the health ministry press release.
Odisha’s coronavirus tally climbed to 3,38,963 as 146 more people tested positive for the disease, a health department official said on Monday. Of the new cases, 87 were reported from quarantine centres and 59 detected during contact tracing. Khurda district, of which the state capital Bhubaneswar is a part, reported the highest number of new cases at 35, followed by Cuttack (25), Mayurbhanj (13), Nuapada and Sundargarh (12 each).
Punjab reported 2,319 fresh coronavirus cases, 1,870 recoveries and 58 deaths in the last 24 hours, while the total cases stood at 2,15,409; total recoveries have gone up to 1,90,399.