Centre concerned about high mortality levels in Maharashtra\, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal districts

NEW DELHI: Even as India's recovery rate in Covid-19 cases rises, the Centre is concerned over the high mortality levels in some districts.

The health ministry has started talks with officials in districts where the number of deaths exceeds the state and country averages.

The top areas recording high mortality rates are Pune, Mumbai, Thane, Kolkata and Chennai.

"The concern is the rise in the number of deaths. We need to engage with those districts and see what's going wrong and how we can help them," said a government official. "A series of video conferences will be held from now on with these districts by the health ministry."

India had more than 2 million Covid-19 cases as of Friday morning, with 41,585 deaths. Over 1.3 million patients (67.98%) had recovered, according to health ministry data. Districts with a minimum of 1,000 active cases that reported a high case fatality rate include Ahmedabad, Solapur, Jalgaon, Latur and Indore.