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New Delhi : India has been witnessing a rise in the active caseload of Covid-19 over the past few days. India’s total Active Caseload was 1,45,634 on February 21, 2021. It now accounts for 1.32% of India’s total Positive Cases.

More than 74% of the Active Cases of the country are in Kerala and Maharashtra. Of late, there has been a spike in the daily cases in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh also. Punjab and J&K too are witnessing a surge in daily new cases.

In the last four weeks in Kerala, the average weekly cases have fluctuated between a high of 42,000 to a low of 34,800. Similarly, in the last four weeks, the weekly positivity in Kerala has ranged from 13.9% to 8.9%. In Kerala, the district of Alappuzha is a cause of special concern where the weekly Positivity Rate has increased to 10.7% and weekly cases have increased to 2,833.

In Maharashtra, in the last four weeks, the weekly cases have shown a rising trend and have increased from 18,200 to 21,300; while the weekly positivity has also increased from 4.7% to 8%. The areas of concern are Mumbai Suburban areas where the weekly cases have risen by 19%. In Nagpur, Amravati, Nashik, Akola, and Yavatmal the weekly cases have increased by 33%, 47%, 23%, 55% and 48%, respectively, according to a PIB release.

Punjab is rapidly assuming critical dimension in respect of the spread of COVID19 infection. In the State, in the last four weeks, the weekly positivity rate has increased from 1.4% to 1.6%, while the weekly cases in the last four weeks have seen a rise from 1,300 to 1,682. In one district of SBS Nagar alone, the weekly positivity rate has increased to 4.9% from 3.5% and the weekly cases have more than doubled from 165 to 364.

5 States/UTs have weekly Positivity Rate more than the National Average. The National average is 1.79%. Maharashtra has highest weekly positivity rate with 8.10%.

The Centre has advised all these States to work on five major areas. These are:

  1. Improve the overall testing numbers by focusing on increasing the proportion of RT-PCR tests.
  2. All negative Rapid Antigen Test results to be mandatorily followed by RT-PCR test and no such negative persons are to be missed.
  3. Refocus on strict and comprehensive surveillance as well as stringent containment in selected districts.
  4. Regular monitoring of the mutant strains through testing followed by Genome Sequencing, as well as monitoring of the emerging cluster of cases.
  5. Focusing on clinical management in districts reporting higher deaths.A total of 1.06 Crore (1,06,89,715) people have recovered so far. 11,667 patients recovered and got discharged in the last 24 hours. India’s Recovery Rate at 97.25% is amongst the highest in the world. 81.65% of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 5 States. Kerala has reported the maximum number of single day recoveries with 5,841 newly recovered cases. 2,567 people recovered in Maharashtra in the past 24 hours followed by 459 in Tamil Nadu.

    85.61% of the new cases are from 5 States. Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 6,281. It is followed by Kerala with 4,650 while Karnataka reported 490 new cases. Only two states – Maharashtra and Kerala account for 77% of daily new cases reported over the last 24 hours.

    Twenty two States/UTs have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are : Gujarat, Odisha, J&K (UT), Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Jharkhand, Puducherry, Assam, Meghalaya, Lakshadweep, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Ladakh (UT), Nagaland, A&N Islands, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, D&D and D&N.

    101 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. Five States account for 80%of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (40). Kerala reported 13 deaths. Punjab has reported another 8 casualties. In last 24 hours, only 1 state has reported more than 20 deaths; 10 to 20 deaths have been reported by just 1 state; 6 to 10 deaths have been reported by 2 states and 10 states have reported 1 to 5 deaths.