With 47,092 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, India reported the biggest single-day rise in coronavirus cases in two months on Thursday. Kerala, much to the Centre’s concerns, accounted for nearly 70% of the total new infections and a third of deaths
“With cases rising in Kerala, adequate steps should be taken to contain the inter-state spread of Covid-19,” Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a statement after speaking with his state counterparts in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which border Kerala. He also asked the two neighbouring states to increase vaccination in the districts close to Kerala.
Nationwide, as many as 35,181 patients recovered across the country from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours taking the total recoveries to 3,20,28,825. The current recovery rate is at 97.48 per cent. With 509 fatalities, the Covid death toll in the country reached 4,39,529.
Of the total new cases recorded in the country, Kerala reported 32,803 fresh Covid cases and 173 deaths on Wednesday. With the addition of new cases, the active caseload of India reached 3,89,583, which is 1.19 per cent of the total cases. Currently, the daily positivity rate is at 2.80 per cent.
Amid all this, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday said that India has not seen the conclusion of the second surge of the pandemic.
Briefing mediapersons, the Union Health Secretary said, “There is a consistent decline on weekly positivity for the last three months. Daily new cases continue to show a decline. From 279 districts that were reporting 100 cases on a daily basis in June 2021, the number has come down to 42 districts that are reporting more than 100 cases on a daily basis on August 30 2021.”
“47,092 cases were reported in the last 24 hours. 69 per cent of the new cases in the country in the last week were recorded in Kerala. We have not seen the conclusion of the second Covid-19 wave in the country,” he stated.
Bhushan said that Kerala is one state that has more than 1 lakh active cases. Four states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have 10,000 to 1 lakh active cases. The rest of the states/UTs have less than 10,000 active cases.
He further informed that 16 per cent of the total adult population of the country has been fully vaccinated. 54 per cent of the total adult population of the country has received at least one shot.
“We administered 18.38 crores of doses in the month of August 2021 alone. The average dose per day administered in August is 59.29 lakh. In the last week of the month, we administered more than 80 lakh doses per day,” he explained.
“Sikkim, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Himachal Pradesh have administered the first dose of Covid-19 vaccination to 100 per cent of their population over the age of 18 years. Sikkim has administered the second dose to 36 per cent of their population, Dadra and Nagar Haveli has administered to 18 per cent and Himachal Pradesh has administered the second dose to 32 per cent population,” he added.
Under the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive, India has administered over 66.30 crore vaccine doses so far. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, more than 81 lakh doses were administered in the last 24 hours.