India records 16,752 new cases, highest this year

India's covid surge continues to show worrying upward trend with the country reporting highest-single day surge of 16,752 in the last 24-hour. With the fresh additions, the country's overall rally has mounted to 1,10,96,731 on Sunday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said. In the last 24-hour, more 113 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, taking the overall toll to 1,57,051, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

This is the highest daily rise in this year.

Due to the increase in covid cases, positivity rate has been rising gradually, which is now at 1.48 per cent. As per the Ministry's data, there are 1,64,511 active cases at present after 11,718 patients were discharged in a day.

Till now, 1,07,75,169 persons have been discharged so far. The recovery rate has reduced to 97.10 per cent, a change of 0.4 per cent in the last two days. Meanwhile, the fatality rate remains 1.42 per cent.

On February 9, India had reported 9,110 new cases, the lowest this year so far. Last year, the lowest 9,633 cases were recorded on June 3.

Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Karnataka and Gujarat are responsible for 90 per cent of the cases. Meanwhile, six states accounted for 84.62 per cent of the new deaths included Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.

The Ministry also informed that 7,95,723 samples were tested on Saturday. The cumulative tests done by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) so far stands at 21,62,31,106.

So far, 1,43,01,266 doses of corona vaccine have been administered in the country since the drive began on January 16 after approval for 'Covishield' and 'Covaxin'.

Here's more updates:

*The Chinese mainland reported six new imported Covid-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of imported cases to 4,990, the National Health Commission said in its daily report om Sunday.

*The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the single-shot Johnson and Johnson (J&J) Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, the third to be authorised against the disease in the country.

*As the vaccination for people aged above 45 with comorbidities and above 60 is around the corner, the enthusiastic promise of 'free vaccination to all' by the Delhi government appears a far fetched dream for the UT residents.

*CoWIN to open for registration on Mar 1, walk-ins to likely supersede