Daily spike at 4-month high with nearly 47,000 new Covid-19 cases; 212 deaths in 24 hours

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,11,51,468

India reported the sharpest increase in Covid-19 cases this year as the country marked the first anniversary of the precursor to nation-wide lockdown to fight the pandemic with 46,951 new patients and 212 deaths in a single day.

Maharashtra was seen to be driving the fresh surge as it reported 30,535 fresh cases, accounting for more than 65% of the 46,951 cases reported on Monday.

Eight states, including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana, are displaying an upward trajectory in the daily new Covid-19 cases, the health ministry said.

The daily rise in infections was the highest recorded in 130 days with November 12 last year having registered 47,905 new cases of the infectious disease.

India’s cumulative recoveries stand at 1,11,51,468 as of Monday with the national recovery rate at 95.75%. As many as 21,180 patients recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours ending 8:00 a.m. on Monday.

On the vaccination front, health workers had administered more than 4.72 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines.

These include 78,30,626 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have taken the first dose and 49,30,888 HCWs who have taken the second dose, 81,72,121 front line workers (FLWs) who have got the first dose, 27,93,013 FLWs (second dose), 1,94,07,739 beneficiaries more than 60 years old and 4072747 beneficiaries aged 45 and above with specific co-morbidities.

On the 66th day of the vaccination drive on Monday, a total of 19,65,635 vaccine doses were given till 7 pm. Out of which 17,55,110 beneficiaries were vaccinated for the first dose and 2,10,525 HCWs and FLWs received the second dose of vaccine as per the provisional report.

It was on March 22 last year that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed to the
citizens to observe a ‘Janata Curfew’ before announcing a nation-wide lockdown on March 25 which continued till May 31.

The government eased the lockdown gradually from June onwards with the health ministry issuing standard operating procedures for opening up religious places, shopping malls, restaurants, hotels and offices and most recently, educational institutions, to prevent the spread of the infection.