NEW DELHI: Capital Delhi and five other states, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, reported high daily new cases over 24 hours till Friday morning. The health ministry update underlines the fact that 84.44% of the 16,838 new cases reported in the country over the last 24 hours were from these six states.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra continued to report the highest daily new cases at 8,998, followed by Kerala with 2,616 and Punjab 1,071. Twenty states and Union Territories have less than 1,000 active cases with Arunachal Pradesh reporting just two active cases.
India’s total active caseload was 1.76 lakh till Friday morning which accounts for 1.58% of the total positive cases. Citing the data, the health ministry said that the cumulative positivity rate of the country has shown a steady decline from 8.88% in August to 5.08% in March.
The ministry said that six states accounted for 88.5% of the 113 deaths reported in a day. Maharashtra saw 60 fatalities followed by Punjab (15), Kerala (14), Karnataka (4), Tamil Nadu (4) and Chhattisgarh (3). Eighteen states and Union Territories have not reported any Covid-19 death in a day.
The health ministry also drew attention to the fact that eight states are displaying an upward trajectory in daily new cases. Sharing a detailed daily case graph since February 1 to March 5, it was pointed out that while Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have shown a reduction in active cases in a span of 24 hours, Maharashtra, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Gujarat displayed a rise in the active cases during the same time period.