NEW DELHI: India reported a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases with the country reporting 12,591 infections, the highest in 242 days, and 40 deaths in a single day. The country witnessed 29 new deaths in the last 24 hours, the highest number of new deaths since August 30, 2022.
With Kerala reporting 11 reconciled deaths, the total death tally on a single day touched 40, the highest since August 2022. Last year on August 30, 45 deaths were reported in India according to Krishna Prasad
N C, a Covid data analyst.
Maximum number of deaths was reported from Delhi where six people died due to Covid-19, followed by four each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. The other deaths were reported from Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu where two deaths each were reported. West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Puducherry, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh reported one death each.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tested positive for Covid-19. The minister is currently under home quarantine with mild symptoms. According to Krishna Prasad, the fresh Covid-19 cases recorded in the last 24 hours, which stood at 12,591, was the highest single-day figure since August 19, 2022 – after a gap of 242 days.
Although the health ministry has said that the majority of cases are being reported from eight states -Kerala, Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Rajasthan, experts said other states are now also seeing a spike in cases.
While Kerala continues to report the highest number of cases and deaths, Maharashtra, where the new Covid sub-variant XBB.1.16, which is triggering the current surge in cases, was detected, and Delhi have been registering over 1000 cases.
According to the health ministry data, the daily positivity rate has climbed to 5.46%, while the weekly positivity rate stood at 5.32%. The number of active cases rose to 65,286. Officials said 4, 42, 61,476 people have recovered from the infection with the current recovery rate touching 98.67%.
In view of the spike in Covid-19 cases across India, a high-level meeting was held by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Wednesday to review the status of preparedness of health infrastructure and logistics, drugs availability and vaccination campaign in the country.
