Curb COVID-19 chain, keep mortality rate below 1%: Centre tells Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka amid spike in cases

Five States account for more than 60% of the total active cases in the country with Maharashtra contributing maximum to the active caseload.

File Photo (ANI)

New Delhi: The Health Ministry on Saturday (September 5, 2020) exhorted Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to focus on undertaking aggressive measures to break the chain of transmission and to ensure that the COVID-19 mortality is kept below 1% as India's coronavirus recoveries crossed 31 lakh.

These States have also been advised to proactively ensure higher testing, effective clinical management to lower fatality and save lives along with efficient monitoring at various levels.

Notably, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka account for about 46% of active cases reported nationally in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra alone accounts for 22% of all active cases reported in the last 24 hours.

Similarly, these three states account for 52% of all COVID deaths reported across the country in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra alone accounted for 35% of all deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

The Union Home Ministry has also highlighted the districts of concern in each State.

In Maharashtra, Pune, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Sangli, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Raigad, Jalgaon, Solapur, Satara and Palghar were highlighted and need for effective containment and contact tracing was emphasized.

In Andhra Pradesh, Prakasam and Chittoor were highlighted as districts of concern and the need for daily monitoring of facility wise deaths, strengthening of hospital facilities, increasing the number of ICUs, oxygen beds and efficient clinical management were focused upon.

In Karnataka, the highlighted districts of Koppal, Mysuru, Davangere and Bellari were advised to optimally utilize RT-PCR testing facilities,  to strengthen their door to door active case search and to protect their healthcare workers.

In cumulative terms, five States account for more than 60% of the total active cases in the country. Maharashtra contributes maximum to the active caseload amounting to almost 25%, followed by Andhra Pradesh (12.06%), Karnataka (11.71%), Uttar Pradesh (6.92%) and Tamil Nadu which stands at 6.10%.

Of the total deaths in the country, 70% are recorded in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. 

Notably, Maharashtra alone accounts for 37.33% of the total deaths.

Meanwhile, India recorded the highest single-day peak of 70,072 coronavirus recoveries in the last 24 hours that took the recovery rate to 77.23%.

India has posted more than 22.6 lakh recoveries than the active cases (8,46,395). The active cases currently comprise 21.04% of the total positive cases.

Five States have reportedly contributed to 60% of the total recoveries. 

As of Saturday morning, India has a total of 40,23,179 confirmed cases including 8,46,395 active cases and 69,561 fatalities, as per a data by the Union Ministry of Health.