By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR:Some States in the country are reporting a surge in the daily new COVID cases. Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh together account 80.63% of the daily new cases.39,726 new daily cases were reported in last 24 hours.
Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 25,833, 65% of the daily cases. It is followed by Punjab with 2,369 while Kerala reported 1,899 new cases.
The Centre is actively engaging with all State and UT governments, especially those showing an upsurge in daily new cases and with a high caseload of active cases. The Union Government is regularly reviewing the status of COVID containment and public health measures with them.States/UTs have been advised to improve testing in districts reporting reduction in testing and increase the overall share of RT-PCR tests (more than 70%), especially in districts dependent on high levels of antigen testing in line with the ‘Test Track & Treat’ strategy of the government. States/UTs are also advised to carry out an average close contact tracing of minimum of 20 persons per positive case (in the first 72 hours) along with isolation and early treatment of the serious cases as per clinical protocol.
It is also advised to focus on surveillance and stringent containment of those areas in selected districts which are seeing cluster of cases and focus on clinical management in districts reporting higher deaths. It has been advised that the States and UTs should also follow up on sending samples for genome testing to track virus variants of concern. All States/UTs have been tagged to 10 national labs under the INSACOG consortium with National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) as the nodal institute. States/UTs have been asked to limit the gathering in public places along with promoting COVID-appropriate behaviour through communication and enforcement and accelerate vaccination for priority population groups in districts reporting higher cases. Accelerating the pace of vaccination has also been stressed upon.
Recently, the Centre had deputed high level Public Health teams to Maharashtra and Punjab to assist in COVID-19 control and containment measures in view of recent spike in cases in these States. The Central Government had earlier deputed 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 reports of Central Teams are shared with the States for further follow up action. The follow up and compliance on part of states is monitored by the Union Ministry of Health.
India’s total Active Caseload stands at 2.71 lakh (2,71,282) today, 2.82% of the total positive cases in the country. A net incline of 18,918 cases recorded from the total active caseload in the last 24 hours.
Three States of Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab account for 76.48% of India’s total active cases.Nearly 4cr (3,93,39,817) vaccine doses have been administered through 6,47,480 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today.These include 76,35,188 HCWs (1st dose),47,15,173 HCWs (2nd dose), 78,33,278 FLWs (1st dose)and21,98,414 FLWs (2nd Dose),27,79,998 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities (1st Dose)and 1,41,77,766 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years.
As on Day-62 of the vaccination drive (18th March, 2021), more than 22 Lakh (22,02,861) vaccine doses were given. Of these, 18,32,287 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 32,128 sessions for 1st dose (HCWs and FLWs) and 3,70,574 HCWs and FLWs received the 2nd dose of vaccine. India’s cumulative recoveries stand at 1,10,83,679 today. The national Recovery Rate is 96.56%. Sixteen States/UTs have not reported any COVID19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Meghalaya, D&D & D&N, Nagaland, Tripura, Ladakh (UT), Manipur, Mizoram, A&N Islands and Arunachal Pradesh.
