New Delhi: About 48 per cent of total COVID-19 deaths in India are concentrated in 25 districts of eight states, the Health Ministry said Tuesday. It also stated out the 25 districts, 15 are in Maharashtra alone. While stating this, Union Health Ministry Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said India has recorded the highest number of recoveries from COVID-19. The figure is over 56 lakh, he said. He informed that India has also conducted the second highest number of tests in the world at 8.10 crore.
“New recoveries have been more than fresh cases over the last two weeks. New cases being reported in last 14 days are below previous highs of 90,000 cases per day,” Bhushan said.
“Majority of the deaths are happening in 25 districts. Out of these 15 districts are in one state alone that is Maharashtra. Two districts each are in Karnataka, West Bengal and Gujarat and one each in Tamil Nadu, Punjab, UP and Andhra Pradesh,” Bhushan added.
The health official also said that the average daily COVID-19 positivity rate has declined from 9.21 per cent recorded in the period September 16 -22 to 6.82 per cent from September 30 to October 6.
“Average daily new cases of COVID-19 have declined from 84,179 registered from September 2 to September 8 to 77,113 recorded from September 30 to October 6,” Bhushan said.
“Ten states including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh account for 77 per cent of the active cases in the country,” he added.
Under the Rs 50 lakh insurance scheme for frontline healthcare workers engaged in COVID-19 duty, Bhushan said payments have been made in 95 cases, while 176 claims are under process. “In addition, 79 claims are yet to be received from different states,” Bhushan informed.
