COVID-19: Over 2,000 new cases reported for second consecutive day; details here  

India has reported more than 2,000 new cases for the second consecutive day as 2,380 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) data.  

As many as 1,231 recoveries were reported in the country in the last 24 hours with recovery rate at 98.76 per cent. Total number of COVID-19 recoveries in India stands at 4, 25, 14,479 currently.  

The health ministry data further mentioned that the country has reported 13,433 active cases as of now, which comprise 0.03 per cent of the country’s caseload currently. The country has administered a total of 187.07 crore vaccine doses so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.  

The daily COVID-19 positivity rate stands at 0.53 per cent whereas the weekly positivity rate stands at 0.43 per cent. 83.33 crore tests have been conducted so far, of which 4, 49,114 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.  

Top points to know:

1. Centre wrote to Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, Mizoram and Uttar Pradesh and advised them to mandate COVID-appropriate behaviour. Offline classes will continue in Delhi but schools will have to ensure that COVID-19 protocols are strictly followed, a senior official said.  

2. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said in the letter to the abovementioned states, “It is essential that the states must maintain a strict watch and take pre-emptive action, if required, in any areas of concern to control any areas of concern to control any emerging spread of the infection. Testing and surveillance still remain important to track the virus, its spread and evolution.” 

3. The letter also asked the state governments to follow a risk-assessment based approach to the opening of economic and social activities without losing gains made till now.  

4. States have also been advised to take steps to monitor clusters of cases, adequate testing and reporting high case positivity.  

5. The DDMA decided to make wearing masks mandatory in public places and impose a fine of Rs 500 in case of violation.  

6. 97 per cent of the samples taken from those who died of COVID-19 in Delhi from January to March had Omicron variant, according to government data. Genome sequencing of 578 samples collected from the deceased showed 560 of them had Omicron variant whereas remaining 3 per cent had other variants including Delta.  

7. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath issued guidelines to tackle COVID-19 in the state at a meeting and directed officials to scale up monitoring.
  
8. Mask mandate has been imposed in public places in Lucknow, Gautam Budh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Meerut, Bulandshahr and Baghpat.  

9. Maharashtra reported 162 fresh coronavirus cases on Wednesday with more than 50 per cent of them in Mumbai alone and no new death was reported in the state, according to the health department.  

10. India’s effective reproduction number (R) for COVID-19 has increased to over one for the first time since January, according to a researcher from Chennai’s Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Effective reproduction number is an indicator of how quickly the infection is spreading.  

(With inputs from India Today, agencies)