6 states account for over 85% of fresh COVID-19 cases in India: Health ministry
New Delhi: Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu continue to report a high number of fresh COVID-19 cases and together account for 85.91 per cent of the new cases of the coronavirus infection reported in the country in a span of 24 hours, the Union health ministry said on Thursday.
A total of 22,854 new COVID-19 cases were registered in the country in the said period.
Maharashtra has reported the highest number of fresh cases at 13,659 (almost 60 per cent of the number of cases reported in the country), followed by Kerala (2,475) and Punjab (1,393), the ministry said.
Eight states -- Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana -- are displaying an upward trajectory in the number of fresh cases.
India currently has 1,89,226 active COVID-19 cases, which account for 1.68 per cent of its total caseload.
Showing the change in the number of active cases for the states in the 24-hour period, the health ministry said Kerala reported the maximum decline in the figure while Maharashtra has shown the maximum increase.
More than 2.56 crore (2,56,85,011) vaccine doses have so far been administered in the country through 4,78,168 sessions, according to a provisional report compiled at Thursday 7 am, the ministry said.
The beneficiaries include 71,97,100 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have been administered the first dose, 40,13,249 HCWs who have been given the second dose, 70,54,659 frontline workers (FLWs) who have been given the first dose and 6,37,281 FLWs who have received the second dose.
Besides, 9,67,058 beneficiaries aged above 45 years with specific co-morbidities and 58,15,664 beneficiaries aged above 60 years have also received the first dose of the vaccine.
On the 54th day (March 10) of the ongoing vaccination drive, a total of 13,17,357 vaccine doses were administered -- 10,30,243 beneficiaries inoculated across 20,299 sessions for the first dose and 2,87,114 HCWs and FLWs given the second dose.
A total of 126 COVID-19 deaths were reported in the country in the 24-hour period.
Six states account for 82.54 per cent of the new deaths, with Maharashtra accounting for the maximum casualties (54), followed by Punjab (17) and Kerala (14), the health ministry said.
Nineteen states and Union territories -- Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Goa, Jharkhand, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Ladakh, Manipur, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Arunachal Pradesh -- have not reported any COVID-19 death in the said period.
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Man kills woman lecturer, sets car ablaze; dies by suicide in Karnataka
Bengaluru (PTI): A 46-year-old man allegedly killed a woman lecturer by setting fire to the car with her inside, before dying by suicide; his severed body was found by railway police the next day, police said on Tuesday.
The deceased, identified as Ramanjinappa, a resident of Doddaballapura, was a contract worker in the tahsildar’s office, they said.
Police said the man, who was married and had apparently separated from his wife, was in an illicit relationship with a woman identified as Saroja, whose charred body was found inside a gutted car in an isolated area near the Bashetty Industrial Area in Doddaballapura taluk on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
Saroja was also married and had a son, police said.
According to police, on Saturday, the man allegedly borrowed a car from an acquaintance, claiming he had a medical emergency and needed to visit a hospital.
Citing preliminary investigations, a senior police officer said the man picked up the lecturer from a bus stop in Devanahalli. The two spent a couple of hours driving around Nandi Hills and nearby areas.
Later, they reached a secluded spot in Doddaballapura, where it is suspected that an argument ensued inside the car, following which he allegedly hit her on the head with a hammer, the officer said.
He then set the car on fire, reportedly using petrol, and is believed to have died by suicide thereafter, police said.
Locals who saw the burning car alerted the police and fire department, who rushed to the spot, extinguished the fire, and found the woman’s body completely charred inside the vehicle, the officer added.
His severed body was found near railway tracks in Bidadi by the railway police on Sunday, he said.
The motive and whether the crime was premeditated or impulsive are under investigation, he said.
Saroja’s husband filed a complaint accusing Ramanjinappa of killing her, police said, adding that a detailed investigation is underway to establish the exact sequence of events.
