New Delhi: In the last 24 hours, India reported 43,733 COVID cases and 930 deaths, according to data from the Health Ministry of India.
Active cases have come down to 4,59,920. Kerala reported 14,373 new cases, the highest in nearly a month. Maharashtra reported 8,418 cases and 400 deaths in the last 24 hours.
With an over a 10 per cent positivity rate in as many as 45 districts, the pandemic has become a cause of concern in the Northeast states.
The Health Ministry Tuesday said 73 districts in India reported a positivity rate of over 10 per cent for the June 29-July 5 week. Sixty-one per cent of these high-positivity districts are from the Northeast states of Arunachal (Pradesh (18), Manipur (9), Meghalaya (6), Tripura (4), Sikkim (4), Nagaland (3), and Mizoram (1). In the region, Manipur (5,974) has the highest active cases followed by Meghalaya (4,354), Tripura (3,962), Mizoram (3,730), Sikkim (1,869) and Nagaland (1192).
Dr Balram Bhragava, a member of the country’s Covid-19 task force and Director General of ICMR, flagged that the Northeast will have to step up testing, keep a “close watch” on the test positivity rate at the district-level and set up micro-containment zones.
Meanwhile, just two months after it hosted over 36 lakh people for the Kumbh Mela, just before the second Covid wave, the BJP government in Uttarakhand has cancelled the annual Kanwar Yatra in the state citing the pandemic.
On Tuesday, the state’s police authorities appealed to officers of neighbouring states to ask devotees not to come to Haridwar this month for the annual pilgrimage to collect water from the Ganga. The Yatra was not held last year due to Covid restrictions.
Free Press Kashmir is now on Telegram. Click here to Join.
FPK Android App for 2G. Click here to Download.
