Over 18K new Covid-19 cases for third consecutive day; 17 lakh get vaccines

Of the 97 new fatalities 38 are from Maharashtra, 17 from Punjab and 13 from Kerala

India reported more than 18,000 new Covid-19 cases for the third consecutive day, with eight states, including Karnataka, reporting an upward trajectory in daily cases.

Vaccination against Covid-19 picked up pace with nearly 17 lakh doses of the vaccine administered to beneficiaries on Monday, the highest in a single day. “The cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 2.26 crore,” the health ministry statement said.

The active cases were on the upswing for the sixth consecutive day and touched 1,88,747, comprising 1.68% of the total infections, the health ministry said.

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It said eight states – Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana – were displaying an upward trajectory in daily new cases, prompting the Centre to send high-level teams to understand the fresh challenges faced by them and help remove the bottlenecks in fighting the pandemic.

According to the ministry, a total of 18,599 new infections were registered in 24 hours ending 8:00 a.m. on Monday, while the death toll increased to 1,57,853 with 97 daily new fatalities. On January 29, 18,855 new infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,08,82,798 which translates to a national COVID-19 recovery rate of 96.91%, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.41%.

The 97 new fatalities, 87.63% were from seven states, includin Maharashtra (38), Punjab (17) and Kerala (13).

On the postive side, 18 states/UTs – Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura – have not reported any Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours.

More than 2.26 crore beneficiaries have been administered the Covid-19 vaccines, the government said admitting that initially the progress of the vaccination drive was slow due to hesitancy and problems with the Cowin software.