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 22,854new 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 1,89,226active COVID-19 cases, which account for1.68 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 through4,78,168sessions, according to a provisional report compiled at Thursday 7 am, the ministry said. The beneficiaries include71,97,100 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have been administered the first dose,40,13,249HCWswho have been given the second dose,70,54,659 frontline workers (FLWs) who have been given the first dose and6,37,281FLWs who have received the second dose.

Besides,9,67,058 beneficiaries aged above 45 years with specific co-morbidities and58,15,664beneficiaries 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 for82.54 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.