India on Friday reported its steepest increase in COVID-19 cases as 13,586 new infections took the total number of patients to 3,80,532, as per MoHFW data, even as the Centre asked states to aggressively pursue contact tracing, on the lines of Karnataka, to check the spread of the disease.
Maharashtra and Delhi reported their biggest spike in COVID-19 cases – 3,752 and 2,877 respectively, while Uttar Pradesh (583), Andhra Pradesh (447) and Telangana (352) also witnessed their sharpest spike in cases yet.
On the brighter side, more than two lakh patients have been cured of the highly infectious disease, pegging the recovery rate 53.79%.
According to the Health Ministry, 1,63,248 patients were under active medical supervision, while 2,04,710 persons have recovered from the disease and been discharged from hospital.
The Centre appreciated Karnataka government initiatives of aggressive contact tracing and physical house-to-house survey covering more than 1.5 crore households to track and trace each COVID-19 case that had led to containing the spread of the disease.
“The Centre has asked other states to adopt these best practices to their local context and replicate them for better management of the COVID-19 pandemic,” a Health Ministry statement said.
It noted that the contact tracing exercise in Karnataka had ensured that the health infrastructure in the state does not get overwhelmed during the ongoing pandemic.
The Centre lauded the use of technology through use of mobile apps for effective COVID-19 management by Karnataka.
India is the fourth hardest hit nation by the COVID-19 outbreak after the US, Brazil and Russia. The John Hopkins University, which has been compiling COVID-19 statistics from across the globe, has placed India at the eighth position in terms of deaths due to the viral infection.
The country has reported 12,573 deaths due to Covid-19 with 336 fatalities reported on Thursday alone.
India has also stepped up testing for Covid-19 having tested 1,76,959 samples using a mix of platforms such as RT-PCR, TrueNat and CBNAAT platforms.