Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab together account for 76.4% of active COVID-19 cases currently, with Maharashtra alone contributing nearly 60%, said data released by the Health Ministry on Wednesday.
It reported a surge with 28,903 new cases in the last 24 hours along with 188 deaths. Of the new cases, 83.9% are from Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
“Six States account for 86.7% of the new deaths with Maharashtra registering the highest (87). Punjab follows with 38 daily deaths and Kerala 15,’’ said the Ministry.
It said Maharashtra alone accounts for 61.8% of the daily new cases (17,864), followed by Kerala (1,970) and Punjab (1,463).
Demanding urgent investigation of deaths and serious adverse events following the administration of the vaccine, a group persons working in the area of public health, ethics, medicine and law have written to the Ministry stating their “concerns regarding the lack of information on the investigation of deaths following COVID-19 vaccination in India”.
In their letter addressed to Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and officials, the group said: “Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFIs) are to be investigated through well-defined procedures for vaccine pharmacovigilance and the reports made available in the public domain, for trust-building and transparency. This is especially important for new vaccines such as the COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out across the country under emergency use authorisation, targeted to millions of people.’’
The group has demanded immediate, complete, time-bound and transparent investigation.
It also demanded that the government also put in public domain — for each of the vaccines rolled out — details of all serious AEFIs as of March 16, and the status of investigation, findings of all completed serious AEFI investigations, including cause of death by clinical diagnosis, autopsy findings when possible, or verbal autopsy, to confirm or revise the clinical diagnosis, causality assessment and the reasoning behind that assessment etc.
