Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : June 24, 2022 10:15 AM IST
India registered 17,336 fresh COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, the biggest spike in four months. The last highest 1-day spike was seen on February 19, when the country recorded 19,968 infections. According to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday morning, the daily positivity rate has increased to 4.32 per cent while the weekly positivity rate is reported at 3.07 per cent.
In view of the rising COVID-19 cases, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya hold a high-level review meeting with the key experts and officials on Thursday. They discussed the current trend of state-wise COVID Cases, testing status as well as genome sequencing and vaccination status.
During the meeting, Mandaviya emphasized the need to focus on districts reporting high positivity rate and undertake adequate testing and effective COVID-19 surveillance to assess and control the spread of infection early.
The Health Minister also directed the officials to continue to focus on surveillance and on whole genome sequencing to scan for any possible mutation. The officials were also told to monitor hospitalisations due to Covid-19.
Further, Mandaviya told officials to try to avoid vaccine wastage while urging them to accelerate vaccination, including booster doses, in districts reporting high cases.
Let's look at the states reporting COVID rise
Maharashtra reported 5,218 new cases on Thursday, pushing the state's daily caseload up by 60 per cent. The state also reported 1 death in the past 24 hours.
According to a report by the state health department, as many as 2,479 cases were reported from Mumbai, including the sole death.
Delhi on Thursday reported 1,934 Covid cases, an over two-fold rise from the previous day, which as 928, as per the government health bulletin. However, there no fresh death was reported in the national capital.
With this sudden surge, the number of active cases in the city has gone up to 5,755, and the Covid positivity rate has jumped to 8.10 per cent. At present, there are 309 Covid containment zones in the city.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh reported 636 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the number of active cases in the state to 3,423. Officials from the State Health department said that the number of new and active cases have doubled in the past one week.
More than 51 per cent of the new and active cases are concentrated in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Lucknow and Ghaziabad.
The UP government has intensified testing and has started random testing to assess the prevalence of COVID-19, while hospitals have been directed to ensure that Covid rules are followed in OPD and check overcrowding.
