3 states push highest 1-day rise in Covid tally this year

In the last 24 hours, the country recorded 26,291 cases of Covid-19 an increase of 971 cases from Sunday. However, there were 118 deaths in the last 24 hours, a reduction of 43 fatalities from the previous day, the data shared by the Union Health Ministry showed.

On December 18, India had logged 26,991 cases.

The cumulative tally of the cases has risen to 1,13,85,339 while the death toll has reached 1,58,725 in India.

However, 72 per cent of the country's cases were recorded from three states only.

Maharashtra has reported 16,620 cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day rise of this year, whereas Punjab recorded 1,501 new cases of Covid-19. Meanwhile, Gujarat logged 810 new cases.

The infection level in the country is back to last December's as it has soared to 1.93 from 1.55 per cent in a short interval.

India logged 25,320 new cases of Covid-19 and 161 deaths on Sunday; 24,882 new cases and 140 deaths on Saturday. On Friday, 22,885 Covid-19 cases and 117 fatalities were reported.

On Thursday, India had reported 22,854 Covid-19 cases and 126 deaths while on Wednesday, 17,921 cases and 133 deaths were recorded.

As per the Ministry's data, the active caseload in the country has reached 2,19,262, rising by 9,000 cases from the previous day.

With the discharge of 17,455 patients in a day, a total of 1,10,07,352 persons have been discharged so far.

The rise in the number of Covid-19 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 recent weeks.

Delhi on Sunday reported 407 cases. It has continued recording over 400 cases for the fourth 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 concern 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 7,03,772 samples were tested on Sunday. The cumulative tests done by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) so far stands at 22,74,07,413.

So far, 2,99,08,038 doses of corona vaccine have been administered in the country since the drive began on January 16 after approval for 'Covishield' and 'Covaxin'.