Maharashtra, Delhi among eight States/UTs displaying upward trajectory in COVID-19 new cases

New Delhi [India] March 8 : Eight States and Union Territories in India including Maharashtra and Delhi are displaying an upward trajectory in COVID-19 daily new cases, the Union Health Ministry informed on Monday.
Among other states include Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana and Gujarat.
Eight states and UTs have a weekly positivity rate more than the national average (2.29 per cent) whereas Maharashtra has the highest weekly positivity rate with 11.13 per cent.
According to the health ministry, Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu continue to report a surge in fresh Covid-19 cases and they account for 86.25 per cent of the cases reported in a span of 24 hours.
As many as 18,599 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours out of which 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.
India's total active caseload has reached 1,88,747 today and the present active caseload now stands at 1.68 per cent of total positive cases.
The cumulative tests conducted in the country have surpassed 22 crores (22,19,68,271) and the national cumulative positivity rate currently stands at 5.06 per cent.
More than 2.09 crore (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," the ministry said.
97 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.
Seven States account for 87.63 per cent 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 and UTs have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh (UT), Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura.
The Central Government has also 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 and 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.
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 the recent spike in cases in these states.