Five states account for 70% of Covid deaths

New Delhi: Five states - Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu - account for nearly 70 per cent of deaths due to COVID-19 in the country, Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference here, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said 37.14 per cent deaths have been reported from Maharashtra, 10.89 per cent from Tamil Nadu, 8.98 per cent from Karnataka, 6.17 per cent from Andhra Pradesh and 5.46 per cent from Uttar Pradesh.

"Five states namely Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu account for 70 per cent of deaths due to COVID-19 in the country," he said. Of the 1,133 COVID19 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, Maharashtra accounts for 423 deaths, he said.

Bhushan said these five states also account for 62 per cent of total active cases in the country.

He said Maharashtra accounts for 27 per cent of the total active cases, Andhra Pradesh 11 per cent, Karnataka 10.98 per cent, Uttar Pradesh about seven per cent, and Tamil Nadu around six per cent.

As many as 14 states/UTs have less than 5,000 active COVID-19 cases, he said.

He said apart from these five states other states and union territories account for 31.37 per cent of the deaths due to the disease.

India's total COVID-19 count reached 42,80,423 on Tuesday.