India’s Covid-19 tally tops 12 million with 68,020 fresh cases, 291 fatalities recorded in last 24 hours

New Delhi: The coronavirus disease (Covid-19) count reached 12,039,644 in India on Monday after 68,020 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, according to Union health ministry data.

The country recorded 291 fresh fatalities in the same time period, which took the death toll to 161,843. The health ministry data also showed that 11,355,993 patients have so far been discharged.

The worrying aspect is the active cases, which again crossed the half a million mark after 35,498 new cases were added in the last 24 hours, the health ministry data showed. The active case count now stands at 5,21,808.

In just the past week, the country has added more than 178,000 active cases to its tally, the highest ever in the country for any week since the start of the outbreak in March last year.

Active cases – those still under treatment – is a crucial metric because it directly reflects the pressure on the health care system in a region as well as provides the number of people who are currently carrying the virus.

The health ministry has said that eight states and union territories have been leading the surge in Covid-19 cases in the country. Among them is worst-hit Maharashtra.

On Sunday, Maharashtra reported 40,414 fresh coronavirus positive cases, the highest rise so far in a single day, taking its tally beyond 27 lakh to 27,13,875, the state health department said.

Its capital Mumbai also reported the highest number of new cases in a day on Sunday, by adding 6,933 infections, taking its overall tally to 3,98,724.

The health ministry has said that Maharashtra also has the highest positivity rate – of 22,78 per cent – which is way above the national average of 5.04 per cent.

Apart from Maharashtra, the other seven states and union territories (UTs) with higher positivity rate than national average are Chandigarh (11.85 per cent positivity rate), Punjab (8.45 per cent), Goa (7.03 per cent), Puducherry (6.85 per cent), Chhattisgarh (6.79 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (6.65 per cent) and Haryana (5.41 per cent).

On the testing front, 15 states/UTs have lower tests per million than the national average (1,74,602). These states include Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, the Health ministry said.

Meanwhile, the country’s total vaccination coverage surpassed 6 crore-mark on Sunday.