Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu have been reporting a surge in the COVID daily new cases. They cumulatively account for 86.25% of the new cases reported in the past 24 hours.

18,599 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours.

Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 11,141. It is followed by Kerala with 2,100 while Punjab reported 1,043 new cases.

Centre is regularly holding high-level review meetings with the states and UTs showing a surge in new daily cases. The Health Secretary is also holding weekly review meetings as part of the Centre’s efforts to continuously engage with the states and UTs reporting higher caseload of active cases and those showing rise in daily new COVID19 cases.

Recently, the Centre rushed 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 has already 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.

These teams interact with the State/UT authorities and get a firsthand understanding of the challenges and issues being faced by them so as to strengthen their ongoing activities and remove bottlenecks, if any.

Eight states are displaying an upward trajectory in daily new cases.

India’s total Active Caseload has reached 1,88,747 today. India’s present active caseload now stands at 1.68% of India’s total Positive Cases.

The cumulative tests conducted in the country have surpassed 22 crores (22,19,68,271). The national cumulative positivity rate currently stands at 5.06%.

Eight States/UTs have weekly Positivity Rate more than the National Average (2.29%). Maharashtra has the highest weekly positivity rate with 11.13%.

More than 2.09 cr (2,09,89,010) vaccine doses have been administered through 3,76,633 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today.

These include 69,85,911HCWs (1st dose), 35,47,548 HCWs (2nd dose), 66,09,537 FLWs (1st dose) and 2,13,559 FLWs (2nd Dose), 4,80,661 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities (1st Dose) and 31,51,794 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years.

97 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

Seven States account for 87.63% of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (38). Punjab follows with 17 daily deaths and Kerala reported13 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Eighteen States/UTs have not reported any COVID19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are A&N Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chandigarh, D&D & D&N, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh (UT),Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura.

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HFW/COVID States data/8^thMarch2021/1