55% of Covid cases reported in India are from Kerala, Maharashtra: Centre

The Union Health Ministry on Thursday informed that 55 per cent of the daily COVID-19 cases reported in the country are from Kerala and Maharashtra.

Joint Secretary of the Union Health Ministry Lav Agarwal, while addressing a media briefing here stated that there are as many as 18 districts in the country which are reporting a weekly positivity rate between 5 to 10 per cent.

"Districts reporting high cases of positivity are still a matter of concern for us, we are continuously in talks with those states," the Joint Secretary said.

"Among the 18 'districts of concerns' in the country, 9 are from Kerala and one each is from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Manipur, Puducherry, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal," he said.

"Kerala and Maharashtra are the two states that have more than 10,000 actives cases...55 per cent of the cases of the country are reported in these two states," Lav Agarwal added.

According to the Union Health Ministry, the active cases of COVID-19 in Maharashtra stands at 11,062 while Kerala's active caseload is at 44,778.

Meanwhile, India reported 9,765 new COVID-19 cases and 477 deaths in the last 24 hours, informed the Union Health Minister on Thursday.

As per the health bulletin, the country's active caseload stands at 99,763.

With 8,548 recoveries reported in the last 24 hours, the total recoveries mounted to 3,40,37,054. Consequently, the recovery rate is at 98.35 per cent.