New Delhi: India's COVID-19 active cases were recorded at 1,51,708, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday, highlighting that the surge was due to a rise in daily new cases in some states like Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, NDTV reported.
A total of 16,738 new daily cases have been recorded in 24 hours.
The ministry said 89.57 per cent of the new cases are from seven states.
Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 8,807. It is followed by Kerala with 4,106 cases while Punjab reported 558 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 and UTs to focus on undertaking aggressive measures to break the chain of transmission.
States and UTs 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 isolated/hospitalised, all their close contacts are traced and also tested without delay. They have been advised to critical review the emerging situation regularly with district officials concerned to ensure that gains made so far in COVID-19 management are not lost.
The country has been witnessing a continuous decline in the cumulative positivity rate. Till February 25, the cumulative positivity rate stands at 5.17 per cent.
Till 7 am today, the vaccination coverage was 1,26,71,163 through 2,64,315 sessions, as per the provisional report. These include 65,47,831 healthcare workers (HCWs 1st dose), 16,16,348 HCWs (2nd dose) and 45,06,984 frontline workers (FLWs 1st dose).