The daily number of fresh cases of COVID-19 and deaths due to the deadly pandemic in the country have started to decline in some states, the government said on Tuesday, indicating that the devastating second wave is beginning to abate.

According to the government, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Chhattisgarh were among 18 states and union territories showing continued plateauing or decrease in the daily count of fresh COVID-19 cases.

In Delhi the lockdown has been successful with daily number of new Covid cases in the coming down to 12,600 on Monday from a high of around 28,000 per day late last month. The lockdown which has been extended to May 17 is being used to scale up the healthcare infrastructure.

Addressing a press conference, a senior official, however, said Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Punjab were among 16 states and union territories showing a continued increasing trend in daily new COVID-19 cases.

Thirteen states have more than 1 lakh active COVID-19 cases each and 26 states have a positivity rate of over 15 per cent, the government said.

New cases of Covid-19 in India fell to 3.29 lakh after 14 days, taking the infection tally to 2,29,92,517, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday. Although the number is still very high, it provides some respite from the 4 lakh mark that had been crossed earlier.

A total of 3,29,942 infections were reported in a span of 24 hours, while the death toll climbed to 2,49,992 with 3,876 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am on Tuesday showed. 

After registering a steady rise for two months, the active cases have come down to 37,15,221, accounting for 16.16 per cent of the total infections since the inception of the pandemic, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 82.75 per cent.

Mr Kejriwal also spoke about the decline in daily new Covid cases in Delhi – from a high of around 28,000 per day late last month – and said he had used the lockdown to scale up infrastructure.

Delhi remains under a Covid lockdown till 5 am on May 17.

On Monday, Delhi recorded around 12,600 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours. The active caseload is now a little over 85,000 and the positivity rate is below 20 per cent for the first time since early April.

This morning the Union Health Ministry reported over 3.29 lakh new cases in the past 24 hours.