India’s daily Covid-19 count has remained below 50,000 for the past seven days, but Kerala and some northeastern states continue to be a cause of concern due to the high test positivity rate.
Kerala has been reporting a test positivity rate of 10.2%, while in Sikkim it is 19.7%, Manipur (13.2%), Mizoram (13%) Meghalaya (10.9%) and Arunachal Pradesh (6.5%).
Daily new cases appeared to have plateaued in Kerala around 12,000 for at least the past three weeks. Daily new cases have also been on the rise in some districts of Maharashtra, including Kolhapur, Sangli, Pune and Satara.
NITI Aayog Member V K Paul had described such regions as “simmering pockets of the pandemic” and stressed on containing the outbreak within those regions.
“We need to contain the pandemic within the pockets of the outbreak,” Paul had said noting that 71 districts across the country were reporting more than 100 cases daily.
As of Sunday morning, India had reported a single-day increase of 43,071 Covid-19 infections, while active cases have declined to 4,85,350.
The death toll has climbed to 4,02,005 with 955 more fatalities, while the case fatality rate has risen marginally to 1.32% from 1.31%, the Health Ministry said.
The data stated that 18,38,490 tests were conducted on Saturday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of Covid-19 in the country to 41,82,54,953.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.34%. It has remained under 5% for 27 consecutive days, the ministry said.
Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for 52 consecutive days, and the number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 2,96,58,078, it said.
India had administered more than 35 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines since the vaccination drive began on January 16.