New Delhi, Mar 30 (IANS): Eight Maharashtra districts figure in the list of the 10 districts across the country with the highest number of active Covid-19 cases, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
Karnataka's Bengaluru Urban and Delhi are the other two.
Addressing a press meet, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that India's total active cases stand at 5,40,720 with a net rise of 18,912 cases in a span of 24 hours.
"There are 10 districts across the country that have the most number of active cases - Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad, Bengaluru Urban, Nanded, Delhi and Ahmednagar," he added.
Highlighting the need for rigorous testing and tracking of Covid-19 cases, he said there was a need to exponentially increase tests in states and Union Territories that are reporting a spike.
"The kind of result we have seen in past few weeks... it has observed that contract tracing is not being done properly. There should be effective and prompt tracing of persons in contact with Covid-19 patients and it should be done within 72 hours," he said.
States and district authorities have been advised to prefer RT-PCR testing up to 70 per cent.
The Health Ministry said that the weekly national average positivity rate of India reached 5.65 per cent, with Maharashtra having a weekly average of 23 per cent, Punjab of 8.82 per cent, Chhattisgarh 8 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 7.82 per cent, Tamil Nadu 2.50 per cent, Karnataka 2.45 per cent, Gujarat 2.2 per cent and Delhi 2.04 per cent.
Six states, including Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, accounted for 78.56 per cent of the 56,211 fresh cases recorded in the country.
Bhushan said: "It has observed that Covid-19 protection measures are not being followed in these states and districts and therefore we have asked the authorities to use community force and use law and order to enforce the system. We have learned that in most places, authorities are allowing home quarantine for Covid-19 infected persons, but there is no proper monitoring whether norms are being followed or not. So, we have advised institutional quarantine."