India is among the three countries most badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic (File)
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka - three of the four states most badly affected by the Covid pandemic, have been instructed to take aggressive measures to control the spread of the infectious virus.
The Union Health Ministry, on Saturday, directed the three states to keep their mortality rates below one per cent; Maharashtra, the worst-affected with over 8.6 lakh cases, has a fatality rate of three per cent.
These three states accounted 46 per cent of all active cases reported across the country over the past 24 hours, the government said; with 19,218 (a record single-day spike) Maharashtra alone reported 22 per cent of all fresh cases in India on Friday.
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka also reported around 52 per cent of all Covid-related deaths in India over the past 24 hours. Once again Maharashtra was at the top, with its 378 deaths during this period accounting for nearly 35 per cent of all Covid-linked deaths in the country.
As many as 17 districts across these states have been red-flagged.
Eleven of these are in Maharashtra and include Pune, Nagpur, Raigad, Ahmednagar and Nashik. Two - Praksam and Chittoor - are in Andhra Pradesh and four - Koppal, Mysuru, Davangere and Bellari - are in Karnataka.
According to government data available this evening, Maharashtra has over 8.6 lakh confirmed cases, of which more than 2.11 lakh are active infections and nearly 26,000 are deaths.
Karnataka and Andhra have nearly 3.8 lakh cases and 4.77, respectively, of which around 99,000 and 1.03 lakh are active cases. Karnataka has reported over 6,100 deaths so far, while Andhra Pradesh has reported around 4,300.
In addition to these three states Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh are also contributing to the country's active caseload, with the five states accounting for around 62 per cent of active cases.
Maharashtra's contribution is around 25 per cent and is followed by Andhra Pradesh (12.06 per cent), Karnataka (11.71 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (6.92 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (6.1 per cent).
Of the total recorded deaths in India around 70 per cent have come from four of the above five states - Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh - and national capital Delhi.
Maharashtra alone accounts for around 37 per cent of all COVID-19-linked fatalities in India. Tamil Nadu is next on the list with around 7,700, followed by Karnataka with 6,100, Andhra Pradesh with around 4,300 and Delhi with 4,150.
Overall India has become the third country to record over 40 lakh coronavirus cases; the nation is only behind the United States and Brazil on the list of worst-affected nations. Nearly 70,000 people have died in India since the pandemic began in China's Wuhan in December last year.