Maharashtra has remained on top of the list of states worst hit by Covid-19 since April last year. The state today accounts for around 60% of all active cases in India; eight of the top 10 districts in the country are from Maharashtra.
The Government of India has clarified that the new mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2 are not responsible for the rise of Covid-19 cases. It has also asked states with surging cases to go back to the fundamentals: test, track and treat.
Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 16,620 and 50 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the overall number of daily new coronavirus cases in the country to 26,291.
Lagging in vaccination
Despite cases in the state going up every day, Maharashtra’s vaccination data is less than flattering: it accounts for only 7 per cent of fully vaccinated people in the country. Of the 35,73,489 vaccine doses administered in India on March 12-13, only 10% were administered in the state of Maharashtra.
Concerns raised
While the state is now testing around 1 lakh samples a day, its testing figure per million is 1,42,513.9 against the national average of 1,63,160.
Dr VK Paul, Niti Aayog member (health), had expressed concern over the situation in Maharashtra at a weekly Covid briefing. “We are very worried about Maharashtra. It’s a very serious matter. Our suggestion in all states where the virus is on the rise is that vaccinations of eligible individuals should be prioritised,” he said.
But the pace of vaccination in Maharashtra has not picked up. Of the total 2,99,08,038 vaccine doses administered in the country so far, only 27,83,323, which is around 9.3 per cent, were administered in Maharashtra.
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here
Comments
0 comment