Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a high-level virtual meeting with chief ministers and health ministers of seven high-burden states on Wednesday to review the COVID-19 situation.

These states are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Punjab, an official statement said, noting that more than 63 per of the active cases in the country are concentrated in these seven states.

They also account for 65.5 per cent of the total confirmed cases and 77 per cent of the total deaths.

"Along with the other five states, Punjab and Delhi have reported an increase in the number of cases being reported recently. Maharashtra, Punjab and Delhi are reporting high mortality with more than 2.0% Case Fatality Rate (CFR). Other than Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, their positivity rate is observed to be above the national average of 8.52 per cent," the statement said.

The Centre, it added, has been leading the fight against COVID-19 in effective collaboration and close coordination with the state and union territory governments.

The Union government is supporting them to ramp up healthcare and medical infrastructure, with the clinical management capacities of the doctors manning the ICUs having been substantially upgraded through the e-ICU tele-consultation exercise undertaken by the Health Ministry in collaboration with AIIMS, New Delhi.

The statement said high-level reviews have ensured adequate availability of medical oxygen in hospitals and COVID healthcare facilities.

The Centre is also regularly deputing multi-disciplinary teams to states and UTs to support and handhold them in matters of containment, surveillance, testing and efficient clinical management of the positive cases.