Covid-19 update: India reports over 18k cases

India's covid surge continued to increase at an alarming rate as the country registered 18,711 new cases in the last 24 hours, similar to the level during mid-January, according to data shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. As of Sunday, the country's cumulative caseload has increased to 1,12,10,799.

The figure was an increase of 1,873 cases that was reported two days ago. However, the daily death toll saw a slight drop. With 100 new fatalities, the death toll has increased to 1,57,756.

As per the Ministry's data, there are 1,84,523 active cases presently. Besides, 14,392 patients of Covid-19 were discharged in a day. A total 1,08,68,520 persons have been discharged so far.

Maharashtra remains the worst hit state by the pandemic in the country. Between February 28 and March 5, Maharashtra added 51,612 new cases.

Punjab is emerging as another Covid-19 hotspot as the state recorded 1,071 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, the highest since November 2020.

The Ministry also informed that 7,37,830 samples were tested on Saturday. The cumulative tests done by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) so far stands at 22,14,30,507.

Till date, 2,09,22,344 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the country since the mass drive began on January 16.

The third phase of vaccination began on Monday covering with an aim to cover 27 crore of people above 60 and those above 45 years of age with comorbidities at 10,000 government and over 20,000 private vaccination centres.

Here's some more updates:

Sri Lanka on Sunday received the first batch of 264,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines provided under the World Health Organisation's COVAX facility, an official said.

The United States continues to see a decline in new Covid-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations as more than 85 million vaccine doses have been administered.

Following recommendations from the State’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), Karnataka is likely to stop giving permission to hold mass protests involving over 500 people.

On International Women’s Day (March 8), C.V. Raman Hospital in Bengaluru and designated hospitals in other districts will be designated ‘pink booths’, which will be dedicated for vaccination of women who fit the age criteria.

The total number of global Covid-19 cases has topped 116.4 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 2.58 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.