The country is witnessing a sudden surge in Covid-19 cases in some parts of the country including the national capital. The Centre has asked Kerala to provide updated Covid data daily and noted that the state reporting figures after a gap of five days has skewed India's key pandemic monitoring indicators such as cases, deaths and positivity rate.
Kerala meanwhile reported 213 deaths in a span of 24 hours, out of which one death was reported on April 17. 62 were designated as Covid deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and the directions of the Supreme Court and remaining 150 deaths were reported from April 13 to 16, according to the Union Health Ministry.
Read | With positivity rate at 7.72%, is Delhi heading towards Covid 4th wave?
India has reported a 90% increase in new cases and 165% increase in positivity in a single day, Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said. The Union Health Ministry has regularly emphasised the need for a robust reporting mechanism of state-wise cases and deaths on a daily basis.
Delhi's Covid-19 positivity rate jumped to 7.72% even as the city recorded 501 fresh cases, 16 less than the previous day. Official record states that last time the positivity rate was above seven per cent in the city on January 29 (7.4%) and on January 28 (8.6%).
Barring Sunday, Delhi has been witnessing an upward trend in daily Covid-19 cases positivity rate in the last few days. Despite less tests, the positivity rate in the city on Monday rose to 7.72%. The national capital on Sunday recorded a 4.21% positivity rate.
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Amid the surge in cases, the Uttar Pradesh government has made wearing of masks mandatory in public places, including NCR districts. The Gautam Buddh Nagar police on Monday started an awareness campaign to ensure everyone had their faces covered.
In Bengal, only 17 new cases were detected in the last 24 hours. The case load is now 20,17,823. There were no deaths due to the disease and the toll remained at 21,200. There were 38 recoveries pushing the number of such people to 19,96,333.
