Maharashtra on alert as Covid-19 cases see uptick in China, Europe
Mumbai, March 19: Following the reports of a surge in Covid-19 cases in European countries and neighboring China, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Saturday said the state government is on alert over the situation.
"We have received a letter from the Central Government to be on alert as there is a surge in Covid-19 cases across European countries, South Korea and China. Accordingly, our health department had issued a letter to DCs to be cautious and take necessary steps," Tope said. Maharashtra reported 171 new Covid cases and three deaths on Friday.
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According to the state health department, 394 people recovered from the disease on Friday while the active number of cases stood at 1,680. With the new cases, the infection tally in the state reached 78,72,203. The new fatalities pushed the COVID death toll in Maharashtra to 1,43,765.
Meanwhile, India reported a total of 2,075 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 4,30,06,080, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.
The death count rose to 5,16,352 with 71 fresh Covid-related fatalities. The active cases declined to 27,802. They now constitute 0.06 per cent of the country's total positive cases.
A total of 4,24,61,926 people have recovered from Covid-19 in the country since March 2020 of which 3,383 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours.
The country's recovery rate currently stands at 98.73 per cent, while the case fatality rate is at 1.20 per cent.
The daily positivity rate stands at 0.56 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was at 0.41 per cent. As per the health ministry, 78.22 crore tests have been conducted so far. Of these, 3,70,514 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.
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Meanwhile, India's Covid-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 181.04 crore as per provisional reports till 7 am today. So far, 11,68,106 in the age group 12-14 years have been vaccinated against Covid-19.
The vaccination drive for this age group commenced on March 16 and children are being administered the Corbevax vaccine.
-PTC News
