India's COVID-19 uptick stays maintained with 1249 new cases in last 24 hours

New Delhi: Union Health Ministry has notified that India recorded 1249 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the daily positivity rate to 1.19 per cent, and the weekly positivity rate to 1.14 per cent. Recently, the ministry had also notified that in addition to COVID-19, the latest data available on the integrated health information platform showed that a total of 3038 laboratory-confirmed cases of various subtypes of Influenza including H3N2 have been reported till 9th March 2023 by few states across the country.

To manage this threat to public health, both the Centre and the Union Health Ministry issued advisories to set up integrated disease surveillance programmes, to monitor the influenza-like illness (ILI) cases and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) being observed across the country due to viral infections.

The Union Health Ministry updated that India’s active COVID caseload now stands at 7.927, owing to the 1,05,316 COVID tests conducted in the last 24 hours. The ministry reported that a total of 92.07 crores of COVID-19 tests have been conducted in India so far.

Amid this uptick in viral infections in the country over the past couple of weeks, Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary said a mock drill will be done soon in all the states and Union Territories to assess their preparedness to meet the twin threats to public health.

The active COVID-19 cases now amount to 0.02 per cent of the total COVID-19 infections in the country, and the national COVID-19 recovery rate stands at 98.79 per cent with 925 recoveries recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 4,41,61,922, the Health Ministry notified.

According to reports, the eight states where the maximum number of COVID cases are being reported currently are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. "I had personally written to these states on March 16 on the steps that need to be taken," Bhushan added.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) had also advised all the states to continue focusing on the fivefold strategy of Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination and Covid Appropriate Behaviour and ensure the availability of key drugs, sufficient beds and health workers at healthcare facilities to deal with the viral surge.

According to the ministry's website, 220.65 crore doses of COVID vaccines (95.20 crore second doses and 22.86 crore precaution doses) have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive, out of which, 6,117 doses were administered in the last 24 hours.