India
Latest News LIVE Updates: 6 States See Surge In Covid, Account For 79.5% Of Cases, Says Centre
Latest News LIVE Updates: India’s total active cases have reached 4,52,647 (File)
New Delhi:
Six states – Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh – continue to report a high surge in daily COVID-19 cases and account for 79.57 per cent of the new infections reported in a span of 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.
India’s total active cases have reached 4,52,647 and currently comprise 3.8 per cent of the country’s total infections, it said.
The country saw 62,258 new cases being registered in the last 24 hours, the highest single day rise so far this year, according to the ministry.
Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 36,902 followed by Punjab (3,122) and Chhattisgarh (2,665), the ministry said.
Ten states are displaying an upward trajectory in daily new cases, it said.
A net incline of 31,581 cases was recorded in the total active caseload in a span of 24 hours.
Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab cumulatively account for 73 per cent of the total active cases in the country.
The total vaccination coverage in the country has crossed 5.8 crore, the ministry said.
Here are the Latest News Live Updates:
India gave 1.2 million free doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to Bangladesh on Saturday. Dhaka also asked New Delhi to maintain a regular supply of shots to battle the pandemic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the offering at the end of a two-day tour of Bangladesh to celebrate its 50th independence anniversary. The visit also marked PM Modi’s first foreign travel since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Bangladesh signed a deal in November with the Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, for 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
A second Covid lockdown in Delhi is “not a solution”, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said today, after the national capital on Friday night reported over 1,500 new cases for a second straight day.
He referred to medical experts who’ve suggested the coronavirus – or a variant of the virus – will continue to circulate for years to come, and said “we’ll have to learn to live with it”, echoing comments made by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in May last year.
“There is no possibility of a lockdown. Earlier there was a logic behind it. No one knew how the virus (would) spread. We were told if you close all activities for 21 days it will stop. So lockdown continued… but, despite this, the virus did not go away. I think lockdown is not a solution,” he said.
