India's COVID-19 active cases were recorded at 1,51,708, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday, highlighting that the surge was due to rise in daily new cases in some states like Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. A total of 16,738 new daily cases have been recorded in a span of 24 hours.
The ministry said 89.57 per cent of the new cases are from seven states. Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 8,807. It is followed by Kerala with 4,106 cases while Punjab reported 558 new cases.
The Centre has deputed high-level multi-disciplinary teams to Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir (UT) to ascertain reasons for the surge and coordinate with the state health departments in COVID-19 control and containment measures.
The Centre has also written to states and UTs to focus on undertaking aggressive measures to break the chain of transmission.