India's 78% of Covid-19 cases emerging from 5 states amid fears of second wave

Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu continue to report a surge in Covid-19 daily cases and account for 78.41 per cent of the new infections, the Union health ministry said.

Nearly three-fourths of India's Covid-19 cases have been traced to five states as the country has been witnessing a resurgence in March after two months of reduced tally, data by the Union ministry of health and family welfare showed on Monday.

A woman wearing a protective mask walks past a graffiti amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on a street in Navi Mumbai, India, March 8, 2021. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/Files(REUTERS)

The country, which expert say may be witnessing a second wave of the pandemic, has witnessed more than 100,000 cases of the coronavirus disease in the second week of March, data shows. The likely signs of the second wave are surfacing almost a year after India announced its first lockdown triggered by rising cases in March 2020.

Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu continue to report a surge in Covid-19 daily cases and account for 78.41 per cent of the new infections, the Union health ministry said.

India's worst-affected state of Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 16,620 and is responsible for 63.21% of the daily infections seen in the country. It is followed by Kerala with 1,792 while Punjab reported 1,492 new cases. Additionally, Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab, cumulatively account for 77 per cent of India's active cases. Maharashtra alone accounts for more than 58 per cent of the active cases in the country.

"A rising trajectory of daily new cases is visible in eight states. These are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana," the ministry said.

Six states account for 82.20 per cent of the new deaths and Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties at 50. Punjab follows with 20 daily deaths and Kerala reported 15 deaths in a span of 24 hours.

India reported its biggest daily spike in the cases of Covid-19 this year, with 26,291 infections in the last 24 hours, according to the health ministry. The new Covid-19 cases have pushed the tally of the country, which is now behind the United States and Brazil, in terms of numbers, to over 11.38 million.

India has been recording more than 20,000 cases of coronavirus disease for the last five days now.

The last time India registered a high number of daily infections was on December 20 last year when as many as 26,624 new infections were recorded. Registering an upward trend for five days in a row, the active caseload has gone up to 219,262 which is 1.93 per cent of the total infections in the country, while the recovery rate has dropped to 96.68 per cent, the data stated.