Across the country, five states are seeing a rise in the number of COVID cases and fresh infections despite having a dip in November and December, said the Centre on Saturday, 20 February. The last week has seen a spike in India’s seven-day average of new cases.

This news also comes along with the rising cases of mutations in India, as 4 cases of the South African variant and 187 UK variant patients have been confirmed.

Are we heading towards another surge? Some states like Maharashtra have issued a fresh set of restrictions, but reports suggest a rise in cases in other states too.

On Saturday, India reported 10,977,387 confirmed Covid-19 cases as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Of these, 13,993 were reported in the last 24 hours - this is the highest one-day spike since 29 January.

Here are the states with rising COVID cases:

• Maharashtra: There has been a sudden spike in cases of covid infection in Maharashtra over the last couple of weeks, prompting fear of a second wave, and a new set of covid restrictions by the civic bodies. The state has the highest number of daily new cases in the country today, and in the last 24 hours, 6,112 daily new cases have been reported. In Mumbai, cases have increased by 37 percent, and Friday saw 823 cases, the highest single-day spike in infections since December.
• Kerala: 4,584 cases were on Friday, 19 February. This meant the states total infection tally passed the one million mark.
• Chhattisgarh: This state has seen a spike in the last week, and the last 24 hours saw 259 daily new cases.
• Punjab: There has been a sudden spike in daily cases, and in the past 24 hours, 383 cases were reported.
• Madhya Pradesh: In the past few days, this state has seen a sudden rise in cases. In the last 24 hours, 297 daily new cases have been reported.

(With inputs from News18)