Kerala, 2 other states account for 50% of new Covid cases

India’s daily Covid-19 count dropped to nearly 18,500 a day after the tally had crossed the 20,000 mark, even as three

states

continued to report higher than 1,000 new infections.

On Thursday, Kerala logged 5,051 fresh cases, Maharashtra 3,729 and Chhattisgrah 1,010. Although all three states reported a slight drop from the numbers recorded on Wednesday but still accounted for 50% of all cases recorded in the country on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the

Union

health secretary has written to the Maharashtra, Kerala,

Chhattisgarh

and Bengal governments on the need for “strict vigil” and “prompt action” to arrest the recent spike in Covid cases in each of the states.

These four states account for 59% of all active Covid cases in the country, health secretary

Rajesh Bhushan

said in his letter. The state governments were also warned against allowing testing rates to drop, particularly in the light of the spread of the mutated strain of the virus that's said to be more infectious.

Bengal reported 921 new cases on Thursday, the fourth highest in the country and a slight increase from the numbers recorded in the state in the past six days. Overall, however, the cases appears to be receding in Bengal as compared with the numbers reported last week.

There were 231 deaths recorded in India on Thursday, around the same as the previous day’s toll (228). Maharashtra continued to report the highest deaths, 72 on Thursday, followed by Kerala (25), Delhi (19) and Bengal (18).