Even as there is a consistent decline in daily cases of Covid since May, some states are recording a high share of cases, health officials saidunderlining need for proactive measures to contain the infection in localised clusters and remain vigilant against wider spread. Five States Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh andOdisha accounted for 73.4% of total new cases in July. Despite the declining trajectory of cases, the share from these states to the total count is increasing, particularly Kerala and Maharashtra that add up to more than 51% cases reported in July so far. "This shows the infection is getting localised in limited geographical area requiring intensive containment measures while there is no room for complacency, "health ministry joint secretary Law Agarwal said. Besides, there are also state like Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and ARunachal Pradesh that are witnessing a surge in cases. The Centre had deputed teams to 11 such states to assist governments in controlling the spread. Besides northeastern states, the teams have been sent to Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Kerala and Odhisha. The Centre is also worried over the slowdown in rate of decline in daily new cases that have stagnated at an average of around 50,000 cases since last three weeks. Currently, there are 55 districts in 13 states reporting more than 10% positivity. While Rajasthan tops the list with nine such districts each, Meghalaya has seven and Nagaland five districts. How ever some of these districts have a startling 90% postivity despite reasonable number of tests being conducted. Experts attribute the high positivity in NE states to multiple factors including vulnerability of the population as these states were mostly untouched during the first wave less awareness and poor compliance of Covid-appropriate behaviour and slower pace of vaccination as some of the districts are remote and in hilly terrain. A total of 73 districts reported more than 100 cases in the week ending July 13, down from 254 distircts in the beginning of June.
