41K infected in last 24 hours, 8 States major contributors
Coronavirus has infected a record 40,953 people in the last 24 hours, highest so far since November taking the total tally to 1,15,55,284 on Saturday. Eight States, including Maharashtra, are the major contributors in the total caseloads, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.
Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab cumulatively accounted for 76.22 per cent of India’s total active caseload. The western States contributed to 62 per cent of such cases, while the southern and northern States accounted for 8.83 per cent and 5.36 per cent of active cases respectively.
The top five districts in Maharashtra recording the highest number of cases were Pune (37,384), Nagpur (25,861), Mumbai (18,850), Thane (16,735) and Nashik (11,867) while the top five districts in Kerala recording the highest number of cases were Ernakulam (2,673), Pathanamthitta (2,482), Kannur (2,263), Palakkad (2,147) and Thrissur (2,065).
Similarly, the top five districts in Punjab recording the highest number of cases were Jalandhar (2,131), SAS Nagar (1,868), Patiala (1,685), Ludhiana (1,643) and Hoshiarpur (1,572).
“A rising trajectory of daily new cases is visible in eight States. These are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana. Kerala is showing a consistently declining trend,” the Ministry said in a statement.
The Health Ministry further said five States account for 81.38 per cent of the fresh deaths due to the virus. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties at 70, Punjab followed with 38 daily deaths and Kerala reported 17 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, in a major relief, fifteen States and UTs did not report any Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours.
These were Assam, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Ladakh, Manipur, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Arunachal Pradesh.
The Ministry further said India has scaled a significant peak in its battle against Covid-19 pandemic with the total vaccination coverage surpassing four crore.
“About 4,20,63,392 vaccine doses have been administered through 6,86,469 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today. These include 77,06,839 healthcare workers (HCWs) (first dose), 48,04,285 HCWs (second dose), 79,57,606 frontline workers (FLWs) (first dose) and 24,17,077 FLWs (second dose), 32,23,612 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities (first dose) and 1,59,53,973 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years,” it said.
Sunday, 21 March 2021 | PNS | New Delhi
