96,982 new COVID cases, almost half of them reported from Maharashtra

COVID-19 cases continued to spurt in India, as 96,982 new cases and 446 related deaths were reported in 24 hours till Tuesday (April 6) morning, data of the Health Ministry showed. Of these, 47,288 cases came from Maharashtra, while cases in Chhattisgarh rode to a new high of 7,302, and the figure in Karnataka crossed the 5,000 mark.

The country reported more than one lakh COVID-19 cases in just 24 hours on Sunday (April 4) — the highest single-day spike in infections since the pandemic began early last year.

Also read: Karnataka reports 32 COVID deaths in a day; experts call for strict restrictions

The country’s active case tally now stands at 7,88,223. While 164 people died in Maharashtra, Punjab showed 72 fatalities. The country’s cumulative count climbed up to 1,26,86,049, while the death toll stands at 1,65,547. Over 43 lakh people were also inoculated on Monday, pushing the vaccination count up to 8,31,10,926.

On Monday (April 5) Maharashtra went for a full lockdown on weekends and fresh restrictions throughout the month. The Centre had told the state a fortnight back that weekend lockdowns have a limited impact on containing the spread of the virus.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan is scheduled to meet representatives of 11 states and UTs reporting high COVID figures while Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with chief ministers on Thursday (April 8).

There were 103,558 COVID cases on Monday (April 5) morning. The active cases of surged to 788,223, registering a steady increase for the 27th day in a row, the Health Ministry’s said. The number of patients cured of the disease stood at 50,143 and recoveries have risen to 11,732,279, the data showed.

Also read: Mumbai: More beds to be operationalised for COVID-19 patients

Meanwhile, Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla told a news channel that the effectiveness of the Covishield vaccine rises to as much as 90 per cent if the two shots are separated by about 2.5-3 months.

“One arm of trials, in which doses were given one month apart, was 60-70 per cent effective. And there was another group of few thousand patients where they gave a gap of 2-3 months between the two doses. That is where they found the efficacy to be 90 per cent,” Adar Poonawalla said.