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Increase the proportion of RT-PCR tests and subject Rapid Antigen negative people to mandatory Retest by RT-PCR to find New Covid Cases

Strict and Comprehensive Surveillance and Stringent Containment highlighted as Critical to curbing Spread in new covid cases

Centre writes to States Witnessing Spike in New COVID Cases. India has been witnessing a rise in the active caseload over the past few days. India’s total Active Caseload is pegged at 1,45,634 today. It now consists of 1.32% of India’s total Positive Cases.

More than 74% of the Active Cases of the country are in Kerala and Maharashtra. Of late it is seen that there has been a spike in the daily cases in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh also. Punjab and J&K too are witnessing a surge in daily new cases.

In the last four weeks in Kerala, the average weekly cases have fluctuated between a high of 42,000 to a low of 34,800. Similarly, in the last four weeks, the weekly positivity in Kerala has ranged from 13.9% to 8.9%. In Kerala, the district of Alappuzha is a cause of special concern where the weekly Positivity Rate has increased to 10.7% and weekly cases have increased to 2,833.

In Maharashtra, in the last four weeks, the weekly cases have shown a rising trend and have increased from 18,200 to 21,300; while the weekly positivity has also increased from 4.7% to 8%. The areas of concern are the Mumbai Suburban areas where the weekly cases have risen by 19%. In Nagpur, Amravati, Nashik, Akola and Yavatmal the weekly cases have increased by 33%, 47%, 23%, 55% and 48%, respectively.

Punjab is rapidly assuming a critical dimension in respect of the spread of COVID19 infection. In the State, in the last four weeks, the weekly positivity rate has increased from 1.4% to 1.6%, while the weekly cases in the last four weeks have seen a rise from 1300 to 1682. In one district of SBS Nagar alone, the weekly positivity rate has become 4.9% from 3.5% and the weekly cases have more than doubled from 165 to 364.

5 States/UTs have a weekly Positivity Rate more than the National Average. The National average is 1.79%. Maharashtra has the highest weekly positivity rate with 8.10%.

The Centre has advised all these States to work on five major areas. These are:

  • Improve the overall testing numbers by focusing on increasing the proportion of RT-PCR tests.
  • All negative Rapid Antigen Test results to be mandatorily followed by RT-PCR test and no such negative persons are to be missed.
  • Refocus on strict and comprehensive surveillance as well as stringent containment in selected districts.
  • Regular monitoring of the mutant strains through testing followed by Genome Sequencing, as well as monitoring of the emerging cluster of cases.
  • Focusing on clinical management in districts reporting higher deaths.

On the front of COVID Vaccination, India’s cumulative Vaccination Coverage has crossed 1.10 Cr.

As on 18th February, 2021, till 8:00 AM, a total of 1,10,85,173 vaccine doses have been administered through 2,30,888 sessions, as per the provisional report till 8 am today. These include 63,91,544 HCWs (1st dose), 9,60,642 HCWs (2nd dose) and 37,32,987 FLWs (1st dose).

The 2nd dose of COVID19 vaccination started on 13th February 2021 for those beneficiaries who have completed 28 days after receipt of the 1st dose. Vaccination of the FLWs started on 2nd Feb 2021. Chandigarh is performing poorly in the vaccination drive so far.

S. No.  State/UTBeneficiaries vaccinated
1st Dose2nd DoseTotal
1A&N Islands4,8461,3066,152
2Andhra Pradesh4,07,93585,5364,93,471
3Arunachal Pradesh19,7024,04123,743
4Assam1,53,25911,0501,64,309
5Bihar5,22,37938,9645,61,343
6Chandigarh12,95379513,748
7Chhattisgarh3,40,55720,6683,61,225
8Dadra  &Nagar Haveli4,9392445,183
9Daman  &Diu1,7352131,948
10Delhi2,94,08117,3293,11,410
11Goa15,0701,11316,183
12Gujarat8,21,94060,1308,82,070
13Haryana2,08,30823,9872,32,295
14Himachal Pradesh94,89712,0761,06,973
15Jammu & Kashmir2,00,6956,7312,07,426
16Jharkhand2,52,63411,3252,63,959
17Karnataka5,40,8681,13,4306,54,298
18Kerala3,99,06438,8294,37,893
19Ladakh5,6316006,231
20Lakshadweep1,8091151,924
21Madhya Pradesh6,40,8053,7786,44,583
22Maharashtra8,75,75246,9769,22,728
23Manipur40,2151,71141,926
24Meghalaya23,87762924,506
25Mizoram14,6272,24116,868
26Nagaland21,5263,90925,435
27Odisha4,38,12794,9665,33,093
28Puducherry9,25185310,104
29Punjab1,22,42913,8591,36,288
30Rajasthan7,82,70138,3588,21,059
31Sikkim11,86570012,565
32Tamil Nadu3,39,68631,1603,70,846
33Telangana2,80,97387,1593,68,132
34Tripura82,36911,58793,956
35Uttar Pradesh10,66,29085,75211,52,042
36Uttarakhand1,30,9087,1461,38,054
37West Bengal6,33,27149,7866,83,057
38Miscellaneous3,06,55731,5903,38,147
Total1,01,24,5319,60,6421,10,85,173

As on Day-36 of the vaccination drive (21st February 2021), a total of 4,32,931 vaccine doses were administered. Out of which, 2,56,488 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 8,575 sessions for 1st dose (HCWs and FLWs) and 1,76,443 HCWs received 2nd dose of the vaccine.

60.04% of those who have received the second dose are concentrated in 7 States. Karnataka alone accounts for 11.81% (1,13,430 doses).

A total of 1.06 Cr (1,06,89,715) people has recovered so far. 11,667 patients have recovered and got discharged in the last 24 hours. India’s Recovery Rate at 97.25% is amongst the highest in the world.

81.65% of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 5 States.

Kerala has reported the maximum number of single day recoveries with 5,841 newly recovered cases. 2,567 people recovered in Maharashtra in the past 24 hours followed by 459 in Tamil Nadu.

85.61% of the new cases are from 5 States.

Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 6,281. It is followed by Kerala with 4,650 while Karnataka reported 490 new cases. Only two states – Maharashtra and Kerala account for 77% of daily new cases reported over the last 24 hours.

Twenty two States/UTs have not reported any COVID19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are Gujarat, Odisha, J&K(UT), Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Jharkhand, Puducherry, Assam, Meghalaya, Lakshadweep, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Ladakh (UT), Nagaland, A&N Islands, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, D&D and D&N.

101 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

Five States account for 80%of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (40). Kerala reported 13 deaths. Punjab has reported another 8 casualties.

In last 24 hours, only 1 state has reported more than 20 deaths; 10 to 20 deaths have been reported by just 1 state; 6 to 10 deaths have been reported by 2 states and 10 states have reported 1 to 5 deaths.


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By Taruni Gandhi

Taruni Gandhi is an ace writer and journalist with over a decade experience in covering health, social issues. She can be contacted at [email protected].

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