‘Area of concern’: Health ministry on rise in Covid-19 cases in Kerala, Maharashtra

According to the health ministry, Kerala and Maharashtra logged 53% of total Covid-19 cases reported from across the country last week.

The Union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) on Friday expressed concern at the current situation of the coronavirus pandemic in Kerala and Maharashtra, two states which it said had the highest contribution in total Covid-19 cases reported by the country last week.

A health worker collects a swab sample of a passenger for a Covid-19 test at a railway station in Kerala on July 7 (PTI)

"An area of concern is that 53% of Covid-19 cases have been reported primarily from two states, Kerala and Maharashtra. While Kerala contributed 32% of the total Covid-19 cases logged by the country last week, Maharashtra's contribution of 21% was the second-highest," Lav Agarwal, a joint secretary at the MoHFW, said at a press conference on the current coronavirus pandemic situation in the country.

Agarwal mentioned another cause of concern with respect to the two states. "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 been higher than those on July 6." On Kerala, he said, the state saw more than 12,800 infections on July 2 which fell to more than 8,300 on July 6 but on the following days, the number of new cases was higher.

"We're coordinating with the two state governments. Our effort is to contain the spread of the infection through intensive containment measures," Agarwal said further.

On Thursday, Kerala witnessed 13,772 Covid-19 cases while the corresponding number for Maharashtra was 9,114, according to data provided by the respective state governments. Hence, together, the two states contributed 22,886 or 52.74% of the cases reported from across the country in the last 24 hours which, according to the Union health ministry's data on Friday morning, stood at 43,393.