India’s Covid cases surge, 70 deaths in last 8 days

India recorded 6,155 fresh Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, the highest in close to 7 months, according data compiled by the Union health ministry on Saturday morning.

The total number of active coronavirus cases in the country has now shot up to 31,194,

With 11 more deaths reported due to the disease in the last 24 hours the total number of fatalities in the last 8 days has gone up to 70.

Kerala, Maharashtra and Delhi have 10 or more districts with over 10% positivity which have emerged as the Covid hotspots in the country. The positivity rate shows the number of people confirmed with Covid infections in every lot of 100 persons who are tested.  It is a indicator of how fast the disease is spreading.

The disease appears to be spreading at a faster rate as cases are now doubling every week.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya held a high-level meeting with the state health ministers on Friday to take stock of the situation.  The states have been advised to step up testing in order to detect cases early which will help to slow down the spread of the disease.  They have been asked to increase the share of RT-PCR tests. As many as 23 states were found to have testing rates below the national average.