More Than 40% Districts in India Have Over 20% Covid-19 Positivity Rate

India has a test positivity rate of 20% or more for the week starting from May 1 in over 40%, or 301, of the 741 districts.

These districts are spread across 31 of the 36 states and UTs, signalling the widespread virus surge, The Times of India reported.

Of the 15 districts with positivity rates of above 50%, Haryana had four, and Arunachal Pradesh and Rajasthan two each. Most of these districts fall in the rural areas, stated the data by the Union Health Ministry on Saturday.

However, it’s not clear if the high test positivity rate is due to inadequate testing as testing numbers are not available.

Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district has the highest positivity rate at 91.5%, followed by Yanam in Puducherry, Bikaner in Rajasthan, Diban Valley in Arunchal Pradesh and Pali in Rajasthan.

The state with the highest proportion of districts on the 20%-plus list is Kerala, with 13 of its 14 districts featuring in it.

States with over 70% of their districts in this list are Haryana (19 out of 22), West Bengal (19 out of 23), Delhi (9 out of 11) and Karnataka (24 out of 31).

Also part of the list are all districts in Goa and Puducherry, the single district in Chandigarh and three out of four districts in Sikkim.

On Saturday, India recorded 4.01 lakh cases, taking the active caseload to 37,23,446. As many as 4,187 people died, taking the total Covid-19 toll to 2.38 lakh.

The southern states, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, have been witnessing a massive surge in infections, leading to imposition of strict curbs.

While Kerala decided to impose nine days of curbs as weekend restrictions and other measures taken earlier by the state failed to create a desired impact, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said a total lockdown beginning from May 10 had to be clamped due to a sharp increase in daily infections.

In Karnataka, lockdown-like restrictions were announced on Friday, which will come into effect from May 10 to May 24.

Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Telegram.