NEW DELHI: The health ministry on Wednesday expressed grave concern over rapidly increasing Covid cases in Maharashtra and Punjab, followed by Gujarat and MP.
Nine of the top10 districts in the country with the most number of active cases are in Maharashtra — Pune (43,590 cases), Nagpur (33,160), Mumbai (26,599), Thane (22,513), Nashik (15,710), Aurangabad (15,380), Nanded (10,106) Jalgaon (6,087) and Akola (5,704). The other district in the top 10 is Bengaluru Urban with 10,766 cases.
Punjab, too, is a cause for worry as the number of new cases is disproportionately high compared to its population, health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said.
While 47,262 new cases were registered across the country on Tuesday, six states accounted for 81.7% of these infections. Maharashtra reported the highest daily new cases at 28,699. It was followed by Punjab with 2,254 and Karnataka with 2,010 new cases. The health ministry has called a meeting with these districts and state administrations on Saturday. The ministry has also written to states and UTs to take strict measures and use their discretion to impose local restrictions in view of upcoming festivals that can lead to super spreading events.
The Centre appealed for testing, Covid-appropriate behaviour and vaccination, particularly in the wake of resurgence of cases.