Covid deaths on rise as surge continues

New Delhi: India reported a slight drop in the number of new Covid-19 cases recorded in the last 24 hours on Friday, but the number of fatalities increased during the same period.

A total of 16,838 new cases in the last one day pushed the tally to 1,11,73,761, and 113 died, the Union Health Ministry said.

On Thursday, 89 people had died and 17,407 new cases were recorded.

Meanwhile, the active cases are rising gradually. In a day, it increased by 0.03 per cent pushing the current rate to 1.58 per cent. As per the Ministry’s data, there are 1,76,319 active cases presently and the death toll has reached 1,57,548,

The experts have expressed a number of possibilities which could be owed to the stride ranging from the lax attitude of people towards following the Covid protocols to likeability of “mutations and new strains” causing the surge, as has been studied by the laboratories involved in the Covid detection across the country.

In mid February, officials had said that the average daily new infections oscillated between 9,000 to 12,000 while the deaths were between 78 to 120.

On February 9, India had reported 9,110 new cases, the lowest this year so far. Last year, the lowest 9,633 cases were recorded on June 3.

Till now, 1,08,39,894 persons have been discharged so far. The recovery rate has reduced to 97.01 per cent.

The Ministry also informed that 7,61,834 samples were tested on Thursday. The cumulative tests done by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) so far stands at 21,99,40,742.

So far, 1,80,05,503 doses of corona vaccine have been administered in the country since the drive began on January 16 after approval for ‘Covishield’ and ‘Covaxin’.

The third phase of vaccination against Covid-19 pandemic began on Monday covering 27 crore of people above 60 and those above 45 years of age with comorbidities at 10,000 government and over 20,000 private vaccination centres. While people will be vaccinated free of cost at government hospitals, those taking the shots at private hospitals will have to pay.

IANS

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