Covid-19: India records significant drop in virus deaths

The Covid toll has eased significantly across India and even in some of the worst-hit states such as Maharashtra. On Sunday, the state witnessed only two Covid-19 related deaths, the lowest since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. India too has reported the smallest single-day spike in deaths over the past 12 months.

Mumbai saw the first ‘zero Covid deaths day’ in October 2021 and over the past few months the number of such days has been rising. In the last three days of February, it did not see a single Covid-related death.

According to government figures, on Monday India recorded a net decrease of 8,871 in active coronavirus cases, taking its count to 102,601. India ranks 51st among the most affected countries by active cases and its share of global active cases is at 0.16 per cent (one in 625). However, it is third in terms of deaths and second by total cases and recoveries.

With 119 fresh fatalities on Monday, the death count is now 513,843.

The total count of vaccine shots reached 1,775,086,335 (1.78 billion) on Sunday. India’s fatality rate is at 1.2 per cent, though 14 states/union territories have figures higher than the national average.

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Punjab has the worst fatality rate (2.34 per cent) and is followed by Nagaland (2.13 per cent) and Maharashtra (1.83 per cent), according to official figures.

The Gujarat government on Monday decided to lift all Covid-related restrictions, though residents will have to wear masks and maintain social distancing. From Wednesday, all caps on the number of people attending political, social, educational and other programmes has been removed.

• India