Delhi, Haryana report spike in new weekly Covid cases

Despite a sustained decline in daily coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases across the country, Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat showed a significant increase in new infections over the last week.

Delhi recorded 943 fresh Covid cases, a 26 per cent increase from the previous week, while neighbouring Haryana witnessed a nearly 50 per cent rise with 514 new infections.

In the previous week, Delhi and Haryana have recorded 751 and 344 cases, respectively. With a dip in testing numbers, the daily test positivity rate in the national capital has remained over 1 per cent for the past several days. Gujarat also saw an 89 per cent jump in new Covid cases in the last seven days, however, the overall numbers remained low at 115.

States like Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Telangana reported a continued decline in new infections but the downward trend slowed down over the week. Maharashtra registered 776 Covid cases, a 12 per cent dip from the previous week, while infections in Karnataka fell by 8 per cent.

On Monday, the Union ministry of health and family welfare said that India's weekly positivity rate stood at 0.23 per cent, with active caseload at 11,058.

Meanwhile, the central government has rolled out precaution doses for all adults at private vaccination centres in an effort to thwart the threat of new variants by boosting the immunity against the virus. But the data from the first day of the expanded vaccination drive was not encouraging as only around 10,000 beneficiaries between the age of 18 and 60 years took the precautionary dose till 5.30pm, according to government data.

Government officials said they had expected a slow start on account of the first day being a weekend as well as coinciding with the festival of Ram Navami.