New Delhi: Covid-fear is back in India as the country reported more than 800 fresh Covid cases on Saturday after a long span of 126 days. India's single-day tally of 843 COVID-19 cases on Saturday was a new high for the country that has so far effectively dealt with the virus.
The number of active cases climbed to 5,389, according to Union health ministry data updates at 8 am on Saturday. The country's caseload has also increased to 4.46 crore. Covid deaths have risen rose to 5,30,799 with four fatalities. Jharkhand and Maharashtra reported one death each; Kerala reported two deaths. The active cases which now stand at 5,839 now comprise 0.01 percent of the total infections. The national COVID-19 recovery rate stood at 98.80 percent, according to the health ministry website.
This comes after the Centre on Friday wrote letters to the state governments of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu asking them to follow a 'risk assessment based approach' to prevent and contain the infection.
In the letter, India's Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that though India has observed a significant decline in the number of Covid19 cases during past few months, in the past few weeks India has seen a significant rise in cases in certain pockets of the country. "A total of 2,082 cases reported in the week ending March 8, 2023 which rose to 3,264 cases week ending March 15, 2023," Bhusan mentioned in his letter.
The Health Department, therefore, advised states to examine the Covid 19 situation at a micro level (district and sub-district). It also urged those states to focus on the implementation of necessary measures for 'prompt and effective management' of Covid19. It also suggested that these states look into effective compliance with the advisories issued by the Health ministry.
The number of people who have recovered from Covid stands at 4,41,58,161 as of Saturday while the case fatality rate stands at 1.19 percent. The ministry's website stated that 220.64 crore doses of COVID vaccine have been administered so far.
