Surge in daily new COVID-19 cases in states including Chh’garh

New Delhi, Mar 19 (PTI): States like Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh are reporting a surge in the daily COVID-19 cases, accounting for over 80 per cent of the new infections, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.
The ministry also said that India’s total active caseload has increased to 2,71,282 and comprises 2.82 per cent of the total infections. A net rise of 18,918 cases have been recorded in the total active caseload in a span of 24 hours.
Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 25,833 which is 65 per cent of daily cases. It is followed by Punjab with 2,369 while Kerala reported 1,899 new cases, the ministry said.
A total of 39,726 new daily cases were reported in a span of 24 hours.
Eight states including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana are displaying an upward trajectory in daily new cases. The Centre is actively engaging with all state and UT governments, especially those showing an upsurge in daily new cases and with a high caseload of active cases, the ministry said.
The Union Government is regularly reviewing the status of COVID-19 containment and public health measures with them. States and UTs have been advised to improve testing in districts reporting reduction in testing and increase the overall share of RT-PCR tests (more than 70 per cent), especially in districts dependent on high levels of antigen testing in line with the ‘Test Track and Treat’ strategy of the government.
They have also been advised to carry out an average close contact tracing of minimum of 20 persons per positive case (in the first 72 hours) along with isolation and early treatment of the serious cases as per clinical protocol.
“It is also advised to focus on surveillance and stringent containment of those areas in selected districts which are seeing cluster of cases and focus on clinical management in districts reporting higher deaths.
“It has been advised that the states and UTs should also follow up on sending samples for genome testing to track virus variants of concern,” the ministry said.