60% of active Covid cases found in Maharashtra, says Health Ministry

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a virtual meeting on Wednesday with the Chief Ministers amid the sudden surge in the number of coronavirus cases in the country.

Sixty per cent of the country's active cases and 45.4 per cent of the fresh deaths have been found in Maharashtra, the health ministry said on Wednesday. As reported by NDTV, Maharashtra alone accounts for 61.8 per cent of the daily new cases with 17,864 cases reported over the last 24 hours which is followed by Kerala with 1,970 cases while Punjab reported 1,463 new cases, the ministry said.

Reportedly the positivity rate of Maharashtra was around 11 percent on March 1 which has now crossed 16 percent. The ministry said that though the number of cases are increasing, the testing rate remains the same. "We have asked the state to address that," an official said. 

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also held a virtual meeting with the Chief Ministers on Wednesday amid the sudden surge in the number of coronavirus cases in the country. PM Modi warned the Chief Ministers of a nationwide outbreak if decisive steps are not taken to curb the pandemic. On Tuesday, the Centre had told the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government that the state was "in the beginning of a second wave of Covid" and that there was lack of Covid-appropriate behavior and "tracking and testing of cases".