India reports 1,249 new covid-19 cases in last 24 hours
2 min read . Updated: 24 Mar 2023, 01:51 PM IST
PremiumCovid cases have been increasing across the country with Karnataka reporting 613 active cases while Kerala has 2,090 active cases
New Delhi: India reported 1,249 new covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours with daily positivity rate at 1.19%, the union health ministry said on Friday. The country has recorded more than 44.8 million covid cases and 530,818 deaths so far.
Covid cases have been increasing across the country with Karnataka reporting 613 active cases while Kerala has 2,090 active cases. Maharashtra has 1617 active cases, Gujarat with 1179 cases, Delhi has recorded 346 cases, Tamil Nadu has 517 active cases; Telangana with 146 cases so far.
Scientists said that XBB.1.16 is the covid-19 variant responsible for present surge in covid cases. However, they said people in India have developed hybrid immunity (due to vaccination and natural infection), therefore, the present covid-19 variants will not lead to hospitalisation and severity as it is mild in nature. However, the government has suggested people wear masks in crowded places and complete their vaccination doses if not done yet.
While active cases in India have climbed to 6117, the positivity rate is at 0.02%. Around 4,41,61,992 people have recovered from the infection with the current recovery rate touching 98.79%.
Last week, the union health ministry directed the state/UT government to follow a risk assessment-based approach to prevent and contain the infection. The health ministry advised to the state governments to examine the situation of covid-19 at micro level (district &sub-districts) and maintain focus on implementation of necessary measures for prompt and effective management of covid-19 duly ensuring effective compliance.
“The five-fold strategy, i.e., Test-Track Treat-Vaccination should be followed with continued focus on adequate &proactive testing as per guidelines, monitoring new and emerging clusters of new Covid-19 cases along with monitoring the trend of Influenza-like illness (ILI) & SARI cases in all health facilities or through dedicated fever clinics on a regular basis for detecting early warning signals of the spread of infection," the health ministry stated as there are few states which are reporting higher number of cases indicating possible localized spread of infection.
The country has conducted over 1,05,316 tests in the last 24 hours taking the trajectory of covid testing to 92.07 crore so far.
Under the covid vaccination drive, more than 220.65 crore vaccine doses have been administered to people across the country so far. In the last 24 hours, around 6117 vaccine doses were administered.