8 states account for over 80% of fresh Covid-19 cases, says Health ministry

The ministry said India is seeing a steep intensification in the doubling time of the Covid-19 cases.

At a time when India has been reaching records levels in daily coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, the government has identified eight states which have been the biggest contributors in the spike.

Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new coronavirus cases at 49,447.

The Union health ministry on Sunday said that there are eight states - Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat - which account for 80.96% of the new daily cases.

The ministry added that these and four more states - Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Kerala - are displaying an upward curve in the daily new Covid-19 cases.

Another particular area of concern which the ministry highlighted is a steep escalation in the doubling time of Covid-19 cases. As of April 4, it is 115.4 days, owing to the recent surge in the number of cases, which has led to a second wave of Covid-19 in the country.

The ministry further said that Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Punjab cumulatively account for 76.41% of the total active cases in India, which reached 6,91,597-mark on Sunday. Maharashtra alone accounts for more than half of the total active caseload of the country.

India on Sunday reported 93,249 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day rise so far this year, taking the nationwide Covid-19 tally to 1,24,85,509 , according to the ministry data.

On the issue of vaccination, the ministry said the cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in India stands at 7,59,79,651.

The ministry further said that the cumulative vaccination figure includes over 6.5 crore first doses, while the second dose numbers have crossed the one crore mark.