Daily Covid deaths under 150 for 10 days; none in 17 states, UTs in a day

India on Monday reported 84 fatalities as it continued to register less than 150 daily COVID-19 deaths for the last 10 days, while the tally of active cases shrunk to 1,48,609 which is 1.37 per cent of the total infections.

Seventeen states and Union Territories did not report any COVID-19 deaths in the 24 hour period till Monday 8 am, the Health Ministry said.

These are the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland, Lakshadweep, Ladakh, Sikkim, Rajasthan, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Assam.

The strategy of containment, including prompt tracing and tracking, aggressive and widespread testing, combined with standardized clinical management protocols, have ensured the low mortality levels, in addition to consistent low daily positive cases, it said.

As part of the COVID-19 management and response policy, the Centre's focus is not only in containing fatality but to reduce deaths and save lives by providing quality clinical care to critical and severe patients, it said.

Collaborative efforts of the Centre, states and Union Territories have resulted in reducing case fatality substantially, the ministry said.

It said 11,831new cases were recorded in a span of 24 hours in the country while11,904new recoveries were registered during the same period.

Five states account for81 per cent of the total COVID-19 active cases of the country. Kerala and Maharashtra cumulatively account for 70 per cent of the total active cases of India.

The ministry said 33 states and Union Territories have less than 5,000active cases. The tally of recovered cases has surged to1,05,34,505.

"The gap between active cases and recovered cases is continuously increasing and stands at10,385,896," the Union health ministry underscored.

It said 80.53 per cent of the newly recovered cases are recorded in six states. Kerala has contributed the highest 5,948 to the tally of newly recovered cases, followed by 1,622 in Maharashtra and 670 in Uttar Pradesh.

Also, 85.85 per cent of the new cases are from six states.

Kerala has also reported the highest daily new cases at 6,075, followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka with 2,673 and 487 new cases respectively.

Six states account for79.76 per cent of the 84 fatalities reported in a span of 24 hours. Maharashtra reported the most 30 new fatalities, followed by 19 deaths in Kerala.

Till February 8, the 24th day of the countrywide vaccination drive, 58,12,362 beneficiaries have been inoculated till 8 am. In a span of 24 hours,36,804beneficiaries were vaccinated across1,304sessions.

So far, 1,16,487 immunisation sessions have been conducted.

The number of beneficiaries vaccinated every day is following a steady upward curve, the ministry said.