COVID-19: No deaths reported in 18 states, UTs in last 24 hours

A total of 113 Covid-19 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours in the country, the health ministry stated adding that six states account for 88.5 per cent of the new deaths.

New Delhi: As many as 18 states and union territories did not report any COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, the health ministry informed on Friday morning.

The states and union territories that did not report any COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours are -- Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand.

A total of 113 Covid-19 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours in the country, the ministry stated adding that six states account for 88.5 per cent of the new deaths.

According to the ministry, Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties -- 60, followed by Punjab and Kerala which registered 15 and 14 deaths respectively. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu recorded four deaths each while Chhattisgarh reported three deaths.

A total of 20 states and union territories have less than 1,000 active cases.

Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 8,998. It is followed by Kerala with 2,616 while Punjab reported 1,071 new cases. India's total active caseload currently stands at 1.76 lakh (1,76,319). The country's present active caseload consists of 1.58 per cent of the total positive cases, it said.

"Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu are the top five states showing a decline in active cases in the last one month, while Maharashtra, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi are the top five states showing a rise in active cases," it said.

The cumulative positivity rate of the country shows a continuous decline and it currently stands at 5.08 per cent today, the ministry said.

India has registered a cumulative figure of more than 1.8 crore (1,80,05,503) COVID-19 vaccination doses, as per the provisional report till 7 am on Friday.

These include 68,53,083 Health Care Workers or HCWs (first dose), 31,41,371 HCWs (second dose), 60,90,931 Frontline Workers or FLWs (first dose) and 67,297 FLWs (second Dose), 2,35,901 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities (first Dose) and 16,16,920 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years.

Nearly 14 lakh (13,88,170) vaccine doses were given on Thursday, Day 48 of the vaccination drive, the ministry informed.

India commenced its second phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive to inoculate people above 60 years and those over 45 with comorbidities against the coronavirus from March 1.

(ANI)