Covid-19: These states in India remain top contributors as cases peak

Maharashtra continues to remain on top of the Covid-19 chart even as Mumbai has started to report a significant dip in daily Covid-19 cases.

The Covid-19 curve appears to be on a downward slope in worst-hit Delhi and Mumbai which still maintain India's top spots among cities recording the highest number of coronavirus infections. With the Omicron cases still spreading fast across the country, Delhi, Maharashtra and Karnataka are currently leading the Covid hierarchy in the third wave.

A health worker collects swab samples from a policeman for Covid-19. (AFP)

Maharashtra maintained the top spot on India's Covid-19 graph with 43,211 new cases and 19 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the latest available data. Of these, Mumbai logged 11,317 cases, while Pune overtook the state capital with 11,421 infections.

Karnataka took the second spot, overtaking the national capital, with 28,723 cases and 14 deaths. Of the total, Bengaluru alone accounted for 20,121 new cases and 7 deaths.

Delhi registered a slight drop in new infections, signalling a plateauing of cases. The city-state recorded 24,383 fresh cases on Friday. However, at 34 fatalities, Delhi’s death toll remained the highest among all states.

Tamil Nadu registered 23,459 cases and 26 deaths, while West Bengal logged as many as 22,645 cases, along with 28 fatalities.

In Bengal, 77.2 per cent of the samples, that is, 1,200 out of 1,499 samples sent for genome sequencing, have come out positive for the Omicron variant.

Although the state reported a slight dip in cases, Kolkata took a U-turn from its declining trend and logged a marginal spike in the single-day case count with 6,867 Covid-19 infections.

In other parts of the country, the new Omicron variant continues to cause a surge in infections. There were a total of 6,041 Covid-19 cases linked to the Omicron strain, the Union health ministry said in its bulletin on Saturday.

Other states that recorded more than 10,000 daily Covid-19 cases are Kerala (16,338), Uttar Pradesh (15,975), Rajasthan (10,307) and Odisha (10,273).