New Delhi: Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have recorded an "upsurge" in daily new cases of COVID-19, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.
In a statement, the ministry said in the last seven days, Chhattisgarh has also seen a rise in daily active new cases. In the last 24 hours, 259 daily new cases have been reported, it said.
Kerala continues to report a high number of daily new cases and in the past week, Maharashtra has exhibited a spike in the number of daily new cases, accounting for the highest number of daily new cases in the country on Saturday, the ministry said in the statement.
"In the last 24 hours, 6,112 daily new cases have been reported in the state," it said.
Similar to Maharashtra, the ministry said Punjab has also shown a sudden spike in the number of daily new cases reported in the last seven days with 383 fresh cases recorded in the last 24 hours.
"Since February 13, Madhya Pradesh is also witnessing a rise in the number of daily new cases. In the last 24 hours, 297 daily new cases have been registered in the state," the ministry said.
The ministry stressed the importance of adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour for breaking the chain of transmission and containment of spread of the disease.
Only two states, Maharashtra and Kerala, account for 75.87 per cent of total number of active COVID-19 cases, the ministry added.
The ministry said 18 states/UTs have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are Telangana, Haryana, J&K (UT), Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Assam, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, Manipur, Meghalaya, Ladakh (UT), Mizoram, Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
The ministry said a total of 1,07,15,204 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered through 2,22,313 sessions, as per the provisional report till 8 am today.
These include 63,28,479 healthcare workers (first dose), 8,47,161 healthcare workers (second dose) and 35,39,564 frontline workers (first dose), the ministry said.
The second dose of COVID-19 vaccination started on February 13 for those beneficiaries who have completed 28 days after receipt of the first dose. Vaccination of the frontline workers started on February 2.
The ministry said nine states have administered more than five lakh doses each. These are Uttar Pradesh (11,52,042), Maharashtra (8,60,386), Gujarat (8,56,657), Rajasthan (7,99,719), West Bengal (6,50,976), Karnataka (6,29,420), Madhya Pradesh (6,26,391), Bihar (5,50,433) and Odisha (5,01,713).
Surge in daily cases
Daily COVID-19 cases in the country climbed to about 14,000 after nearly 22 days taking India's tally to 1,09,77,387, while the recoveries surged to 1,06,78,048, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.
A total of 13,993 new cases were registered in a span of 24 hours. The death toll increased to 101 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. On January 29, 18,855 daily cases were recorded.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,06,78,048 which translates to a national recovery rate of 97.27 per cent and the case fatality rate stands at 1.42 per cent.
The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 1.5 lakh.
There are 1,43,127 active cases of coronavirus infections in the country which comprise 1.27 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
The 101 new fatalities included 44 deaths from Maharashtra, 15 from Kerala and 8 from Punjab.
A total of 1,56,212 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 51,713 from Maharashtra followed by 12,451 from Tamil Nadu, 12,287 from Karnataka, 10,897 from Delhi, 10,242 from West Bengal, 8,712 from Uttar Pradesh and 7,167 from Andhra Pradesh.
The Health Ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
"Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.
(With PTI inputs)
