Nearly 75 percent of the country's active cases are from Kerala and Maharashtra

Continuing the trend of reporting less than 100 daily deaths due to COVID-19 infection, India has recorded 78 deaths in the last 24 hours. Average daily deaths in the last week stand at 92.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 21 States and Union Territories have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours.

These are Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan, Haryana, J&K, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Manipur, Sikkim, Tripura, Ladakh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Daman and Diu and Dadar and Nagar Haweli.

As of 1pm on February 23, the number of vaccine doses administered stands at 1,17,54, 788. Out of them, 1,04, 93, 205 are first doses while 12, 61, 583 are second doses.

Addressing a press conference, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, “Over 1.17 crore vaccine doses have been administered across the country - 1.04 crore 1st doses and 12.61 lakh 2nd doses.”
He further noted that active cases continue to be less than 1.50 lakh. It stands at 1,47,306 on Tuesday. The present active caseload now consists of 1.34% of India’s total Positive Cases, according to the Health Ministry data.

In the last 24 hours, 10,584 new daily cases have been recorded whereas 13,255 recoveries registered. It has led to a net decline of 2,749 cases in the total active caseload. India’s daily Positivity Rate remains below 3%.

When it comes to new cases, 84 percent are from six States.

Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 5,210. It is followed by Kerala with 2,212 while Tamil Nadu reported 449 new cases.

In the press conference, Bhushan noted that 75 percent of the active cases are from Kerala and Maharashtra.

“There are still 2 states that have 75% active cases - Kerala and Maharashtra. Kerala has 38% of the total active cases of the country while Maharashtra has 37% of the total active cases. Karnataka has 4% and Tamil Nadu has 2.78% active cases,” he said.

About the recoveries, the Health Ministry noted India’s cumulative recoveries stand at 1.07 Cr (1,07,12,665). The Recovery Rate is 97.22%. The gap between total recovered cases and the active cases is constantly rising and stands at 10,565,359.

Of the new recoveries, 86.56% are observed to be concentrated in six States.
Kerala has reported the maximum number of single daily recoveries with 5,037 newly recovered cases. 5,035 people recovered in Maharashtra followed by 461 in Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, 187 individuals have been detected with UK strain, 6 people with South African strain and one with Brazilian strain till date. This was revealed by Member (Health) NITI Aayog VK Paul in the press conference.

“There are two variants in Maharashtra being talked about - N440 K variant and E484 K variant. Yes, these variants are there in Maharashtra, Kerala and Telangana. Based on the information available to us, yes these variants are there but there is no reason today for us to believe, on basis of scientific information, that these are responsible for the upsurge of outbreak that you see in some districts of Maharashtra and Kerala,” he said.