Fresh Covid-19 cases are showing a worryingly upward trend over the past one week, with the country reporting 16,577 cases in the last 24 hours taking the overall tally to 1,10,63,491 on 26 February, Friday, Union Health Ministry said.
While the latest number of fresh cases is 161 less than the previous day, the situation continues to remain worrisome since the positivity rate has been rising gradually, pushing it to 1.41 percent.
Meanwhile, 120 more deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, taking the overall toll to 156825, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.
The experts have expressed a number of possibilities which could be owed to the stride ranging from lax attitude of people towards following Covid protocols to likeability of "mutations and new strains" causing the surge, as has been studied by the laboratories involved in Covid detection across the country.
The Centre informed on Thursday that 90 per cent of the new cases reported came from seven states including Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh
So far, 1,3472,643 doses of corona vaccine have been administered in the country since the drive began on January 16 after approval for 'Covishield' and 'Covaxin'.
As per the Union Health Ministry, India has become the fastest nation in terms of the vaccine doses administered, even though many countries had launched their vaccination campaigns much earlier.
(This story was published from a syndicated feed. Only the headline and picture has been edited by FIT).
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)