2nd wave of Covid-19: Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh overtake Kerala in daily infections

Earlier this week, the Union health ministry said the Covid-19 situation in Maharashtra and Punjab is of grave concern. But now as the week ends, the situation in several other states worsens as Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have now surpassed Kerala, the state which was considered as one of the hotspots of the infection, and the one which reported the first Covid-19 case in the country in January 2020.

According to the Union health ministry's Saturday data, Kerala is not even among the top six states contributing the highest number of new infections. Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh are the six states responsible for 80 per cent of the new infections. In the last 24 hours, 62,258 new infections have been reported, and all these six states have contributed over 2,000 cases each, while Maharashtra's daily caseload on Friday was 36,902.

Kerala on Friday recorded a dip and recorded 1,825 new infections.

The situation turned around for Kerala in the last two days. According to the ministry's Thursday (March 26) and Friday (March 26) data, Kerala was still one of the top contributors. But with 2,091 fresh cases recorded in the last 24 hours, Madhya Pradesh emerged as a new hotspot.

Here is the list of six states which reported the highest number of new infections in the last 24 hours and the restrictions they have imposed.

Maharashtra

In the last 24 hours, Maharashtra recorded 36,902 new infections, a record that was not reached last year since the beginning of the pandemic. While several districts have already imposed restrictions, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday instructed all districts to impose a night curfew between 8pm and 7am starting from March 28. The Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) has announced a weekend lockdown, asking all non-essential services to close their establishments.

Punjab

On Friday, Punjab reported 3,176 fresh infections, which was the highest single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic. Night curfew has been imposed in 11 worst-hit districts, which include Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala, Mohali, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, SBS Nagar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ropar and Moga.

Chhattisgarh

On Friday, Chhattisgarh reported 2,665 cases, which was the highest after October 15, when the state reported 2,819 new infections. The government has banned the entry of people in all tourist spots. There is no lockdown in the state, but no gathering is allowed.

Karnataka

Out of Karnataka's 2,566 fresh infections, 1,490 came from Bengaluru Urban, the district which has been a cause of worry in the second wave of the pandemic. It is also one of the top 10 districts with the highest number of active Covid-19 cases. The government has made RT-PCR negative certificate mandatory for all those who will be travelling to the state, irrespective of where they are travelling from. This new rule will be effective from April 1.

Gujarat

On Friday, Gujarat reported 2,190 fresh infections, which was the highest single-day spike in the state ever. Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot are under night curfew between 10pm and 6am till March 31.

Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh recorded 2,091 fresh Covid-19 infections on Friday, following which Sunday lockdown was extended to Vidisha, Ujjain, Gwalior, Narsinghpur and Saunsar. Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Betul, Chhindwara, Ratlam and Khargone were already observing Sunday lockdown.