More than half of Covid-19 cases from Maharashtra and Kerala, says Centre

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Friday expressed concern at the marginal rise in Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra and Kerala over the last few days, adding that around 53 per cent of the total coronavirus cases being reported in India at present are from these two states alone.

In a press briefing on Covid-19 status in the country, authorities on Friday said that while Kerala accounted for about 32 per cent of the total Covid-19 cases logged by the country last week, Maharashtra’s share, at 21 per cent, was the second-highest. A few days over the last week, this has also led to a marginal growth in active Covid-19 cases in India, although a clear pattern has not been set yet.

This, said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, is a “matter of concern.” The data presented by the officials in the briefing showed that Maharashtra reported over 8,700 new cases on July 3, which declined steadily to over 6,700 on July 6.

However, since then, the number of daily cases have again been higher than those on July 6. On the other hand, Kerala saw more than 12,800 infections on July 2, which fell to nearly 8,300 on July 6. However, over the last few days, the number of new cases have risen again. “We are coordinating with the two state governments. Our effort is to contain the spread of the infection through intensive containment measures,” said Agarwal.

The figures also showed that Kerala recorded 13,772 Covid-19 cases, while the corresponding number for Maharashtra was 9,114, and put together, the two states contributed 22,886 or 52.74 per cent of the 43,393 cases reported from across the country in the last 24 hours.

Over the last couple of weeks, authorities in different departments of the Central government have also been stressing that the second wave in India is still not over as many districts are reporting an alarmingly high Covid-19 test positivity rate. Last week for instance, there were 66 districts in India the highest of 10 in Arunachal Pradesh, followed by nine in Rajasthan with test positivity rate of over 10 per cent. Of late, states in the Northeast have also reported a rise in daily positive cases and positivity rate. Arunachal has banned entry without vaccination.