Holi is a festival that brings cheer and joy among people but this year it has come at a time when the country is in the grasp of the second wave of coronavirus disease.
According to the latest data India has shown biggest jump in weekly cases of Covid-19 in the past week.
India’s tally of Covid-19 reached up to 68,204 crossing the 12 million-mark and this is the highest daily spike since October 10 last year. However, the seven-day average cases stood at 56,201 in India that is the second highest since October 21.
The Union health ministry data in the week ending on March 21 showed data health ministry data that the country’s daily caseload increased from 24,492 to 46,951, signalling that it is in the grip of a second wave.
#CoronaVirusUpdates:#COVID19 testing status update:@ICMRDELHI stated that 24,09,50,842 samples tested upto March 27, 2021
11,81,289 samples tested on March 27, 2021#StaySafe #Unite2FightCorona pic.twitter.com/nPOb949eIi
— #IndiaFightsCorona (@COVIDNewsByMIB) March 28, 2021
The weekly caseload stood at 2,60,742 and in the following week of (March 22-28) the infection became even more rapid and the daily caseload crossed 60,000-mark and nearing the 70,000 mark on Sunday. The last week’s total comes to 3,93,747.
These numbers shows that last week’s number are 1.33 lakh higher than the previous seven-day period. From the month of February the Covid-19 infection has seen rapid rise in the month of March and the last week saw its worst spread since the beginning of the pandemic.
On Sunday the active cases crossed the half million mark again, after a gap of more than four months. The active case tally stands at 5,23,55. The country added than 1,78,000 active cases of the infection in the past week, the highest ever for any week since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country in March last year. The active case tally stands at 5,23,550.
The current wave is due to a surge in worst-affected Maharashtra and seven other states and union territories. According to health ministry, these eight states and UTs have a weekly positivity rate of Covid-19 infection higher than the national average of 5.04 per cent. Maharashtra has the highest positivity rate of 22.78 per cent.
According to health ministry, the other seven states and UTs with higher positivity rate than national average are Chandigarh (11.85 per cent), Punjab (8.45 per cent), Goa (7.03 per cent), Puducherry (6.85 per cent), Chhattisgarh (6.79 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (6.65 per cent) and Haryana (5.41 per cent).
The daily new cases registered in the last 24 hours in seven states of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have reported high number of daily new cases of Covid-19. These states account for 81.46 per cent.
Meanwhile, the total tests for Covid-19 conducted across India have exceeded 24 crore while the cumulative positivity rate continues to remain below 5 per cent, the ministry said in a statement. Experts have, however, said that testing needs to be increased, especially in the wake of festival season.
