India logs 25,320 new Covid cases, 67% from Punjab, Maharashtra

New Delhi: For the second consecutive day, India’s single-day rise of new Covid-19 cases on Sunday breached the country’s highest tally of 2021 so far, while fatalities continue to increase at a worrisome rate.

It recorded 25,320 cases, an increase of 438 cases from Saturday. There were 161 deaths in the last 24 hours, a hike of 21 fatalities from the previous day, the data shared by the Union Health Ministry showed.

The cumulative tally of the cases has risen to 1,13,59,048 while the death toll has reached 1,58,607 in India.

However, 67 per cent of the country’s cases were recorded from two states only. Maharashtra has reported 15,602 cases in the last 24 hours whereas Punjab recorded its highest single-day tally of this year with 1,515 new cases of Covid-19.

“We used to record this much infections in October-November when the first wave was on decline in the country,” Dr. Rajesh Bhaskar, Nodal officer for Covid-19 in Punjab told IANS.

The infection level in the country is back to last year’s December as it has soared to 1.85 from 1.55 per cent in a short interval.

In the last four days, the number of fatalities has also spiked, which earlier was hovering under 100.

The country on Saturday reported 24,882 new cases and 140 deaths. On Friday, it reported 22,885 Covid cases and 117 fatalities.

On Thursday, India had reported 22,854 Covid cases and 126 deaths while on Wednesday, 17,921 cases and 133 deaths were recorded.

As per the Ministry’s data, the active caseload has breached the two lakh-mark. It was reported 2,02,022 on Saturday while as many as 2,10,544 cases are presently recorded in the country.

With the discharge of 16,637 patients in a day, a total of 1,09,89,897 persons have been discharged so far.

The rise in the number of Covid cases, which had so far appeared confined to Maharashtra and Punjab, is now beginning to show up in several other states.

States/UTs such as Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh have had very similar growth trajectories in the recent weeks.

Delhi on Saturday reported 419 cases for the third day in a row.

As the number of Covid-19 cases is rising across the country, the Centre has sounded a word of caution for states which are not yet seeing a surge but are at the threshold.

Niti Aayog (health) member V.K. Paul last week said the situation of Maharashtra is worrying as part of the state is going back to strict lockdown. However, he shared his concerns for other states as well.

“Would like to caution Delhi-NCR, Gurugram, part of Gautam Buddha Nagar and Ghaziabad to some extent. These areas are seeing a slight rise in the number of cases,” Paul had said.

The Ministry also informed that 8,34,368 samples were tested on Saturday. The cumulative tests done by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) so far stands at 22,67,03,641

So far, 2,97,38,409 doses of corona vaccine have been administered in the country since the drive began on January 16 after approval for ‘Covishield’ and ‘Covaxin’.

IANS

The English Post is on Telegram, click to join for regular news updates