(TibetanReview.net, Mar20’21) – The second or third wave of Covid-19 pandemic around the world has been deadlier than the previous one and India too, it appears, is heading in that direction, reported indiatimes.com Mar 20.
In line with this development, India’s daily cases of Covid-19 crossed the 40,000 mark for the first time in 111 days as the sharp surge in the pandemic continued on Mar 19, with as many as 17 states and Union territories adding the highest number of infections since January or earlier, reported the timesofindia.com Mar 20.
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, said another timesofindia.com report Mar 20.
The rising trajectory of daily new cases is visible in eight states and UTs, including Delhi and Maharashtra, while Kerala is showing a declining trend, the PTI news agency Mar 20 cited India’s health ministry as saying.
The ministry has said Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab cumulatively account for 76.22% of India’s total active caseload, with Maharashtra contributing 62% of such cases, while Kerala and Punjab account for 8.83% and 5.36% of active cases respectively.
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The latest data from India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare show that there were 40,953 new Covid-19 cases and 188 new deaths in the country in the past 24 hours as of Mar 20 at 8 AM, taking their cumulative totals to 11,555,284 cases and 159,558 deaths respectively.
A total of 11,107,332, or 96.12%, had recovered while the number of active cases was 288,394, or 2.49% of the total. However, the case remained at 1.38%.
The latest daily number of new cases, at 40,953, was substantially higher than the daily number of those who had recovered, at 23,653, leading to a big jump in the number of active cases by 17,112.
Eight states have reported more than 1,000 new cases in the last 24 hours, namely Maharashtra (25,681), Punjab (2,470), Kerala (1,984), Karnataka (1,587), Gujarat (1,415), Madhya Pradesh (1,140), Chattisgarh (1,097), and Tamil Nadu (1,087).
Twelve more states/Union Territories have reported more than 100 new cases in the last 24 hours, namely Haryana (872), Delhi (716), Rajasthan (402), Uttar Pradesh (380), Telangana (364), Andhra Pradesh (246), Chandigarh (214) Himachal Pradesh (182), Jammu and Kashmir (152), Odisha (110), Jharkhand (105), and Goa (100).
Nine states have reported 3 or more Covid-19 deaths each in the last 24 hours, namely Maharashtra (70), Punjab (38), Kerala (17), Tamil Nadu (9), Chattisgarh (9), Karnataka (10), Madhya Pradesh (7), Delhi (4), Uttar Pradesh (4), Gujarat (4), and Himachal Pradesh (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 5 to reach 1,630 in the laast 24 hours. Of them 1,552 had recovered, 33 were active and 45 had died, according to the tally of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) as of Mar 20.
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Across the world the number of Covid-19 cases totaled 122,416,036 and the deaths 2,703,126, according to the tally of Johns Hopkins University as of 3:55 PM on Mar 20, 2021.
