Five states account for 70% of India's COVID-19 caseload, Centre proposes strategy to curb rise

New Delhi: As India’s active caseload rose to 3.44 lakh on Friday, five states account for around 70 per cent of the total caseload in the country, the Union Health Ministry data revealled.

At least 2.39 lakh cases are from Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Kerala has recorded the highest number of active coronavirus cases across the country with 1.81 lakh active cases which is more than 52 per cent of the active tally.  

Only three other states have more than 10,000 active cases; Karnataka with 19,326, Tamil Nadu with 18,069 and Andhra Pradesh with 14,448. The rest of the States and UTs have fewer cases. Telangana, with 6,246 active cases, is accountable for the country’s 1.81 per cent active load.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan expressed concerns at the pace of rise in coronavirus cases and directed the states to adopt a 5-fold strategy for controlling the sudden spurt in infections. Also, Centre asked Kerala and Maharashtra to consider night curfews in areas with high coronavirus case numbers as the country reported more than 40,000 new infections for two days in a row on Friday.