Covid +ve rate doubles in 12 days

New Delhi/Lucknow/Mumbai: The daily coronavirus positivity rate in India in the last 12 days has doubled to 16.69 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate has increased to 13.54 per cent in the past one month, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.

India reported a record 2,61,500 new coronavirus cases and 1,501 deaths on Sunday, while active cases have surpassed the 18-lakh mark, the ministry data stated.

Ten states -- Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan -- reported 78.56 per cent of the new infections, it said. "The daily positivity rate in the last 12 days has doubled from 8% to 16.69%," the ministry said in a statement.

Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Raghav Chadha hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the situation in the country and asked him to "leave election management and start corona management".

He took a jibe at the PM and said the fast pase in which coronavirus cases are increasing in the country, the BJP's poll rallies too are increasing at the same rate.

"Looking at the deteriorating corona situation in the country, I want PM Modi to leave election management and start corona management," the AAP MLA said.

"Elections will come and go, please save human lives first," he added.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday cancelled all his public rallies in poll-bound West Bengal following a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases in the country.

He also advised all other politicians to think about the consequences of holding large public rallies. "In view of the Covidsituation, I am suspending all my public rallies in West Bengal. I would advise all political leaders to think deeply about the consequences of holding large public rallies under the current circumstances," he said on Twitter.

"One has seen such a crowd of the sick and the dead for the first time," he said in another tweet in Hindi, apparently referring to the large crowds at Bengal rallies of BJP leaders. The Congress has been critical of Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for holding political rallies amid the rise in coronavirus cases in the country.

India took only 92 days to reach the mark of 12-crore vaccinations, the fastest country to do so, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday.