India reported 7,240 fresh Coronavirus cases on Thursday, nearly 40 per cent higher than a day ago, as infections soared sharply in states like Maharashtra and Kerala. This is the highest jump in the number of daily cases since March 2. On Wednesday, India saw a rise of nearly 41 per cent in the daily COVID cases, as the country logged 5,233 infections.
Daily coronavirus infections in India crossed 5,000 after 94 days (yesterday the country reported 5,233 cases), taking the total tally of active cases to 32,498, according to the Union Health Ministry. The country has 3,641 active cases of the viral infection, according to the government.
The daily positivity rate stood at 1.31 per cent in the last 24 hours, while the weekly positivity rate was recorded to be 2.13, the Health Ministry informed.
The number of deaths climbed to 5,24,723 with eight fresh fatalities, government data updated at 8 am showed. India has reported 4.31 crore Covid cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
On Wednesday Maharastra reported 2,701 fresh cases, its highest infection count since January 25. At least 42 per cent of the infections were reported from Mumbai. The western state has reported one case of B.A.5 variant.
Kerala reported 2,271 new cases in the last 24 hours. The southern state has reported 10, 805 new infections in one week.
The Union Health Ministry is closely monitoring the situation in the states like Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi and Karnataka and has asked them to follow the five-fold strategy and amp-up testing, news agency ANI said quoting official sources.
The Ministry has also asked the States to monitor clusters of new COVID cases and follow COVID appropriate behaviour, sources told ANI.
Recently, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan asked state officials in Kerala, Karanataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Tamil Nadu to closely monitor emerging clusters, maintain adequate number of testing and send samples from infected individuals for genome sequencing.
"There are few states which are reporting a higher contribution to India's cases indicating the possibility of a localised spread of infection. There is, therefore, a need to follow a risk assessment based approach on the public health responses without losing the gains made so far in the fight against the pandemic," Mr Bhushan said in a letter sent to the five states.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.
It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year.
