5 states account for nearly 50% of new Covid-19 cases

NEW DELHI: The Centre expressed concern over five states — Kerala, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi — accounting for almost 50% of fresh cases of Covid detected on Monday even as active cases now stand at 6.25 lakh. Of this, 35% are from only 18 districts.

The Centre said it is focussing on states where cases are growing while the average daily new Covid-19 cases dropped from 83,232 during September 23-29 to 49,909 in the week of October 21-27, health ministry data showed. The decline in cases was witnessed even as average daily testing remained at around 11 lakh samples, officials said.

On Monday, 36,470 new infections were detected — the lowest number of daily new cases in three months since July 17. Testing increased slightly on Monday to 9.58 lakh samples, compared to 9.39 lakh a day ago. However, it remained below 10 lakh which officials attributed to Dusshera celebrations.

Apart from Kerala and Maharashtra, officials are also concerned about Delhi which is registering a high positivity rate even as new cases witnessed a decline on Monday as compared to the three previous days.

While the cumulative positivity rate in Delhi was 8.06%, the weekly positivity rate was at 7%.The government warned against dropping the guard citing a second peak in many countries of Europe and the US witnessing even a third peak. “In many countries cases are increasing. This peak is higher than the original. This must be a lesson for all of us,” Niti Aayog member (health) Dr V K Paul said.

“We are very fortunate that our trend is in the opposite direction. We are fortunate that today we are showing a decline of the pandemic, except in two or three states. This decline is particularly noteworthy because in other countries of the northern hemisphere, there is a severe increase in the intensity of pandemic,” he added.