COVID-19: Maharashtra records highest positivity rate at 22.78 percent, says Centre

New Delhi: Eight states and UTs have a weekly positivity rate of coronavirus infection higher than the national average of 5.04 percent, with Maharashtra recording the highest rate at 22.78 percent, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday. Apart from Maharashtra, the other seven states and UTs with higher positivity rate than the national average are Chandigarh (11.85 per cent positivity rate), Punjab (8.45 percent), Goa (7.03 percent), Puducherry (6.85 percent), Chhattisgarh (6.79 percent), Madhya Pradesh (6.65 percent) and Haryana (5.41 percent). 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. The total tests for COVID-19 conducted across India have exceeded 24 crore while the cumulative Positivity Rate continues to remain below 5 percent, the ministry said in a statement. The country’s total vaccination coverage has surpassed 6 crore on Sunday. The 6,02,69,782 vaccine doses have been administered through 9,85,018 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today. “These include 81,52,808 healthcare workers (1st dose), 51,75,597HCWs (2nd dose), 88,90,046 frontline workers (1st dose) and 36,52,749 FLWs (2nd Dose), 66,73,662beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities (1st Dose) and 2,77,24,920beneficiaries aged more than 60 years,” the ministry said. Seven states of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have reported the high number of COVID daily new cases. These states account for 81.46 per cent of the daily new cases registered in the last 24 hours. About 62,714 daily new cases were reported in a single day. Eight states cumulatively account for 84.74 per cent of the new cases reported in the past 24 hours. Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 35,726. It is followed by Chhattisgarh with 3,162 while Karnataka reported 2,886 new cases. Fourteen states/UTs have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Lakshadweep, Ladakh (UT), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.