Six states account for over 85 % of fresh cases

New Delhi, Mar 04 (PTI): Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka continue to report a surge in daily new COVID-19 cases, accounting for 85.51 per cent of fresh cases, the Union Health ministry said on Thursday.
A total of 17,407 new infections have been registered in a day.
Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 9,855. This is the highest number recorded in the state since October 18 when 10,259 new cases were reported.
It is followed by Kerala with 2,765 while Punjab reported 772 new cases.The total number of cases with UK, South Africa and Brazil variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the country as on date has reached 242, the ministry said. India’s total COVID-19 active caseload has reached 1,73,413 comprising 1.55 per cent of India’s total cases.
“Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh are showing a rise in active cases,” the ministry said.
Showcasing the change in active cases for states and UTs in a span of 24 hours, the ministry said Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam witnessed a reduction in the active cases in 24 hours.
However, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat displayed a rise in active cases during the same time period, it said.
India’s cumulative recovered cases are following a steadily rising trajectory and have surged to 1,08,26,075.
More than 1.66 crore vaccine doses have been administered through 3,23,064 sessions, as per the provisional report till Thursday 7 am.
These include 67,90,808 health care workers (HCWs 1st dose), 28,72,725 HCWs (2nd dose), 58,03,856 front line workers (FLWs 1st dose) and 4,202 FLWs (2nd Dose), 1,43,759 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities (1st dose) and 10,00,698 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years.