India’s Active Caseload is 1,51,708 today comprising 1.37% of the total positive cases. This is largely attributable to the upsurge in daily new cases in some States. Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh have recorded a rise in daily new cases.

16,738 new daily cases have been recorded in the last 24 hours.

89.57% of the new cases are from7States.

Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at8,807. It is followed by Kerala with 4,106 while Punjabreported558 new cases.

The Centre has deputed high-level multi-disciplinary teams to Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir (UT) to ascertain reasons for the surge and coordinate with the State Health Departments in COVID-19 control and containment measures.

The Centre has also written to States/UTs to focus on undertaking aggressive measures to break the chain of transmission. The States/UT have been advised to increase testing in a focussed manner in the affected districts with the appropriate split of RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Tests and to also ensure that all symptomatic negatives of antigen tests are compulsorily tested via RT-PCR tests.

The positive persons are to be promptly isolated/hospitalised, all their close contacts are traced and also tested without delay. They have been advised to critical review the emerging situation on a regular basis with concerned District officials to ensure that gains made so far in COVID management are not lost.

On the other hand, the country has been witnessing a continuous decline in the cumulative positivity rate. As of 25th Feb 2021, the cumulative positivity rate stands at 5.17%.

As at7 am today, the vaccination coverage was1,26,71,163through 2,64,315sessions, as per the provisional report. These include 65,47,831HCWs (1st dose), 16,16,348 HCWs (2nd dose) and 45,06,984 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.

On Day-40 of the vaccination drive (24th February 2021), 5,03,947vaccine doses were given. Out of which, 2,87,032beneficiaries were vaccinated across 9,959 sessions for 1st dose (HCWs and FLWs) and 2,16,915 HCWs received 2nd dose of the vaccine.

Out of total1,26,71,163vaccine doses, 1,10,54,815 (HCWs and FLWs) have received 1st dose of vaccine and a total of 16,16,348 HCWs have received the 2nd dose of vaccine.

Eight States account for more than 56% of the total vaccine doses.

Each of them has administered more than 6 lakh doses. Uttar Pradesh has vaccinated 9.68% of the total doses (12,26,775).

Eight States account for 61% of the total second vaccine doses. Karnataka vaccinated a maximum number of HCWs for the second dose i.e. 11.08% (1,79,124).

12 States/UTs have administered the second vaccine dose to more than 80% of the eligible HCWs. These are Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, D&D, A&N Islands, Lakshadweep, Kerala, Gujarat, Tripura, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Sikkim.

10 States/UTs have vaccinated more than 60% of registered FLWs. These are D&N, Rajasthan, Lakshadweep, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh.

India’s cumulative recoveries stand at1,07,38,501today. The Recovery Rate is 97.21% today. The gap between total recovered cases and the active cases is constantly rising and stands at 10,586,793 today. 11,799 recoveries were registered in the last 24 hours.