(TibetanReview.net, Mar19’21) – Over the past five days, India has seen the sharpest surge in Covid-19 infections in at least the last 10 months, with the seven-day rolling average of daily cases rising by as much as 39% during this period, reported the timesofindia.com Mar 19.
The report noted that Maharashtra had logged its highest-ever daily case count of over 25,800, while 15 other states/Union territories had reported their highest single-day tallies since January or earlier.
The report also said that in the last five days, the seven-day average of daily cases had been growing by over 5% every day. The growth rates during this period were stated to have been 5.2%, 5.8%, 6.6%, 7.4% and 8.7%. Previously, daily growth of over 5% was seen for a maximum of four days, from May 19 to 22.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi has on Mar 18 urged the centre to allow vaccination for all above 18 and claimed his government could inoculate all of Delhi in three months if this was allowed and eligibility restrictions were relaxed, according to the ndtv.com Mar 18. But it remains doubtful whether enough vaccines exist to enable such a drive.
Besides, India’s health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has told parliament on the same day that every vaccine does not need to be administered to everyone, ruling out universal vaccination, reported tribuneindia.com Mar 19.
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The latest data from India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare show that there were 39,726 new Covid-19 cases and 154 new deaths in the country in the past 24 hours as of Mar 19 at 8 AM, taking their cumulative totals to 11,514,331 cases and 159,370 deaths respectively.
A total of 11,083,679, or 96.26%, had recovered while the number of active cases was 271,282, or 2.36% of the total. However, the case fatality has fallen to at 1.38%.
The latest daily number of new cases, at 39,726, was substantially higher than the daily number of those who had recovered, at 20,654, leading to a big jump in the number of active cases by 18,918.
Six states have reported more than 1,000 new cases in the last 24 hours, namely Maharashtra (25,833), Punjab (2,369), Kerala (1,899), Karnataka (1,488), Gujarat (1,276), and Chattisgarh (1,066).
Twelve more states/Union Territories have reported more than 100 new cases in the last 24 hours, namely
Tamil Nadu (989), Madhya Pradesh (917), Haryana (633), Delhi (607), Rajasthan (327), Uttar Pradesh (314), Telangana (313), Andhra Pradesh (218), Chandigarh (211) Himachal Pradesh (171), Jammu and Kashmir (140), and Bihar (107).
Nine states have reported 3 or more Covid-19 deaths each in the last 24 hours, namely Maharashtra (58), Punjab (32), Kerala (15), Tamil Nadu (9), Chattisgarh (5), Karnataka (8), Haryana (6), Rajashan (3), and Gujarat (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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The cumulative total of Covid-19 cases among Tibetans in India, Nepal and Bhutan has risen by 2 to reach 1,625. Of them 1,549 had recovered, 31 were active and 45 had died, according to the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA)’s Covid-19 Task Force at its 51st weekly briefing on Mar 19.
The Task Froce has said there were 13 new cases among Tibetans in India in the past week, including 3 from Bylakuppe, 5 from Clementown, 2 from Mundgod and 1 each from Ladakh, Miao, and Shimla.
The Task Force has also said a total of 681 Tibetans had been vaccinated in India’s first inoculation drive and 6,607 in the second phase.
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Across the world the number of Covid-19 cases totaled 121,882,440 and the deaths 2,692,806, according to the tally of Johns Hopkins University as of 3:56 PM on Mar 19, 2021.
