(TibetanReview.net, Feb27’21) – After reporting a significant drop in the number of Covid-19 cases for months, some states in India have seen a sharp uptick in infections in February, raising concerns about a second wave of the pandemic. A strategy involving faster vaccination, genome sequencing and an increase in testing are the only way to stay ahead of the virus, bbc.co.uk Feb 27 cited experts as saying.
The hindustantimes.com Feb 27 cited four main reasons for the spike: Dip in the number of people being tested for Covid-19, uptick in the rate of positivity, the effect of new variants of the coronavirus, and negligence on part of the general public.
Whatever may be the case, India has reported more than 16,000 daily new cases for the third successive days this morning. The worst-hit state of Maharashtra has reported over 8,000 cases for the third successive day while many other states reported a surge in infections, noted the timesofindia.com Feb 27.
Also, the Covid-19 death toll has stayed above 100 for four days running, the highest number of consecutive 100-plus daily fatalities in February, the report said.
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The latest data from India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare show that there were 16,488 new Covid-19 cases and 113 new deaths in the country in the past 24 hours as of Feb 27 at 8 AM, taking their cumulative totals to 11,079,491 cases and 156,938 deaths respectively. Both the daily numbers were marginally lower for the second successive day than those reported the day before.
A total of 10,763,451, or 97.14%, had recovered while the number of active cases was 159,590, or 1.44% of the total. The case fatality remained at 1.42%. Except for the unchanged fatality rate, the percentage figures for both the recoveries and active cases have again worsened over those of the previous day.
The latest daily number of new cases, at 16,488, was more than the daily number of those who had recovered, at 12,771, leading to increase in the number of active cases by 3,604.
Fifteen states – same as yesterday – have reported more than 100 new cases in the last 24 hours, namely Maharashtra (8,333), Kerala (3,671), Punjab (622), Karnataka (571), Tamil Nadu (481), Gujarat (460), Madhya Pradesh (332), Chattisgarh (279), Delhi (256), West Bengal (216), Telangana (178), Rajasthan (149), Haryana (148), Uttar Pradesh (118), and Goa (100).
Nine states have reported 3 or more Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, namely Maharashtra (48), Kerala (14), Punjab (15), Chattisgarh (7), Tamil Nadu (5), Karnataka (4), West Bengal (3), Madhya Pradesh (3), and Goa (3). The rest of the states have reported 2 or less deaths.
India is currently the country with the world’s second highest number of Covid-19 cases and the fourth highest number of deaths in cumulative numbers.
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Across the world the number of Covid-19 cases totaled 113,467,722 and the deaths 2,518,597, according to the tally of Johns Hopkins University as of 2:52 PM on Feb 27, 2021.
