As the country has witnessed a rise in the active COVID19 caseload over the past few days, the Centre has written to the states to take preventive measures.

“India has been witnessing a rise in the active caseload over the past few days and its total active caseload is pegged at 1,45,634 currently,’’ said the Union health ministry.

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,” the ministry said.

“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,” it added.

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%.

Punjab is rapidly assuming critical dimension in respect of the spread of COVID19 infection.

Five states/UTs have weekly positivity rate more than the national average.

The national average is 1.79%. Maharashtra has 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.

The Centre has asked to focus on clinical management in districts reporting higher deaths.

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

As on February 18, 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 on Sunday.

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 February 13, 2021 for those beneficiaries who have completed 28 days after receipt of the 1st dose.

Vaccination of the FLWs started on February 2, 2021.

A total of 1.06 crore (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.

The ministry said 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.

The ministry said 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.