New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS): Fresh Covid-19 cases are showing a worryingly upward trend over the past one week, with the country reporting 16,488 cases in the last 24 hours taking the overall tally to 1,10,79,979 on Saturday, the Union Health Ministry said.
The positivity rate has been rising gradually, pushing it to 1.44 percent. As per the Ministry's data, there are 1,59,590 active cases at present after 12,771 patients were discharged in a day.
Meanwhile, 113 more deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the overall toll to 1,56,938, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.
The experts have expressed a number of possibilities which could be owed to the stride ranging from a lax attitude of people towards following Covid protocols to the likability of "mutations and new strains" causing the surge, as has been studied by the laboratories involved in Covid detection across the country.
Last week, officials said that the average daily new infections for the last 15 days were oscillating between 9,000 to 12,000 while the deaths were between 78 to 120.
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.
Till now, 1,07,36,451 persons have been discharged. The recovery rate has reduced to 97.14 percent, a change of 0.3 percent from the previous day. Meanwhile, the fatality rate remains 1.42 percent.
On Friday, around 90 percent of the new cases came from six states -- Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Karnataka and Gujarat, while six states accounted for 84.62 percent of the new deaths, which included Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.
The Ministry also informed that 7,73,918 samples were tested on Friday. The cumulative tests are done by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) so far stands at 21,54,35,383.
So far, 1,42,42,547 doses of corona vaccine have been administered in the country since the drive began on January 16 after approval for 'Covishield' and 'Covaxin'.
As per the Union Health Ministry, India has become the fastest nation in terms of the vaccine doses administered, even though many countries had launched their vaccination campaigns much earlier.
The third phase of vaccination against Covid-19 pandemic will begin from March 1 and will 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. While people will be vaccinated free of cost at government hospitals, those taking the shots at private hospitals will have to pay.