The Centre has sounded the alarm over rising Covid-19 cases in the country. Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan has written to the health secretaries of Delhi, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana expressing concern as the weekly positivity rate exceeded 10 per cent in these states.
"Should aim to increase pace of vaccination for eligible population and follow five-fold strategy and adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour," Bhushan said.
Issuing a caution, the Union health ministry has said that the upcoming months are likely to witness mass gatherings for various festivities, which could drive up transmission of the contagious virus and lead to an increase in caseloads and fatalities.
Meanwhile, India reported 19,406 fresh Covid-19 cases and 49 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to data shared by the Union health ministry.
The active cases comprise 0.31 per cent of the total infections, while the national recovery rate was recorded at 98.50 per cent, the ministry said.
A decrease of 571 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in 24 hours.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 4.96 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was 4.63 per cent, it said.
The number of recoveries surged to 4,34,65,552, while the case fatality rate 1.19 per cent.
Among the fatalities, five each were reported from Maharashtra and West Bengal, three from Chhattisgarh, two each from Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Tripura, and one each from Haryana, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.