Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka continue to report an upsurge in daily new COVID-19 cases

14,989 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 7,863. It is followed by Kerala with 2,938 while Punjab reported 729 new cases.

Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Karnataka have shown the maximum increase in new cases on a week on week basis.

Maharashtra alone accounted for a weekly increase of 16,012 cases, in terms of the number of cases.

In percentage terms, Punjab reported the weekly increase of 71.5% (1,783 cases).

The Centre is continuously engaging with the States and UTs reporting higher caseload of active cases and those reporting a spike in the daily new COVID cases. States/UTs have been advised to maintain a continued rigorous vigil for containing the spread of COVID-19 such the gains of collective efforts are not squandered away.

Need for effective testing, comprehensive tracking, prompt isolation of positive cases and quick quarantine of close contacts are strongly emphasized.

The Central Government has also rushed high-level teams to Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Jammu and Kashmir to support them in their fight against the recent spike in COVID-19 cases.

The three-member teams are headed by Joint Secretary level officers in the Health Ministry. They will ascertain reasons for the surge and coordinate with the State Health Departments in COVID-19 control and containment measures.

India’s total Active Caseload has reached 1,70,126 today. India’s present active caseload now stands at 1.53% of India’s total Positive Cases.

The graph below shows the change in active cases for States/UTs in the last 24 hours. While Kerala, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Jammu & Kashmir show a reduction in the active cases in the last 24 hours, Maharashtra, Punjab, Delhi, Karnataka and Gujarat display a rise in the active cases during the same time period.

The 2nd dose of COVID19 vaccination started on 13th February, 2021 for those beneficiaries who have completed 28 days after receipt of the 1st dose. Vaccination of the FLWs started on 2nd Feb 2021.

The next phase of Covid-19 vaccination commenced from 1st March, 2021 for those who are over 60 years of age and for people aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions.

More than 1.56 cr (1,56,20,749) vaccine doses have been administered through 3,12,188 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today. These include 67,42,187 HCWs (1st dose), 27,13,144 HCWs (2nd dose), 55,70,230 FLWs (1st dose) and 834 FLWs (2nd Dose), 71,896 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities (1st Dose) and 5,22,458 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years.

As on Day-46 of the vaccination drive (2nd March, 2021), total 7,68,730 vaccine doses were given. Out of which, 6,52,501 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 10,527 sessions for 1st dose (HCWs and FLWs) and 1,16,229 HCWs and FLWs  received 2nd dose of vaccine.

More than 1.08 Cr (1,08,12,044) people has recovered so far. 13,123 patients have recovered and got discharged in the last 24 hours.

86.58% of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 6 States.

Maharashtra has reported the maximum number of single day recoveries with 6,332 newly recovered cases. 3,512 people recovered in Kerala in the past 24 hours followed by 473 in Tamil Nadu.

98 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

Four States account for 88.78% of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (54). Kerala follows with 16 daily deaths and Punjab reported 10 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Twenty-Four States/UTs have not reported any COVID19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, J&K (UT), Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Goa, Bihar, Puducherry, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Lakshadweep, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, D&D & D&N, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh (UT), Tripura, Nagaland and A&N Islands.