COVID-19: 6 states account for 79% of infections, Centre shares concern as cases rise

New Delhi: The alarming rise in COVID-19 cases has raised concerns for the Centre with the country reporting 56,211 new cases in the last 24 hours. India has been reporting more than 60,000 infections for the past few days.

The Health and Family Welfare's data on Monday (March 29) showed that India registered 68,020 new cases which was also reportedly the highest single-day rise in over 5 months. 

Six States, Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat continue to report a surge in the COVID daily new cases accounting for nearly 78.56% of the new cases. Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 31,643. It is followed by Punjab with 2,868 while Karnataka reported 2,792 new cases.

(Photos: MoHFW)

India’s total caseload touched 5,40,720 the total positive cases is at 4.47%. A net rise of 18,912 cases recorded from the total active caseload in the last 24 hours. 

Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh also account for 79.64% of the total active cases in India, whereas, 19 states and UTs have higher coronavirus cases per million than the national average.



According to the MoHFW, the states were informed that the country has seen the sharpest rise in weekly COVID-19 cases and fatalities since May 2020 (7.7% and 5.1% respectively). The states and UTs were advised to focus on stringent containment and public health measures in 46 high burden districts. 

The following five-fold strategy was also laid out for adoption by the states and UTs for effective containment and management of the COVID-19 pandemic:

1. Increased testing and vaccination

2. Effective tracing

3. Prompt isolation

4. Efficient clinical treatment, and

5. Adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviour.

The sudden unprecedented surge in coronavirus infections has now taken the country's active count to 5.40 lakh. There were 37,028 recoveries in the past 24 hours, following which, India's COVID-19 recovery rate improved to 94.19%.

The COVID-19 vaccination drive, reportedly the world's largest, had kicked-off on January 16, 2021.