Coronavirus pandemic | Top-10 places most responsible for spreading COVID-19 in India

Amid the rising number of confirmed coronavirus cases, the central government has identified 10 ‘hotspots’ that have triggered a higher tide of viral infection, news agency IANS has reported.

According to the report, these hotspots are Dilshad Garden and Nizamuddin in Delhi, Noida and Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, Bhilwara in Rajasthan, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Kasargod and Pathanamthitta in Kerala, as well as Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra.

Identification of these hotspots will help the government ramp up the testing process for the novel coronavirus.

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Delhi’s Nizamuddin has emerged as a coronavirus hotspot after a huge religious gathering held earlier in March. As many as 24 people who attended the Tablighi Jamaat have tested positive for COVID-19.

Also, fears have mounted that thousands present in the religious congregation could have carried the infection to the length and breadth of the country. Thousands of participants of the religious gathering are known to have returned to their homes in virtually every state including Telangana, West Bengal, Karnataka and Gujarat. Many of these states have reported COVID-19 cases linked to this congregation.

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Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry lamented that the number of hotspots has risen due to the "lack of people's support and delay in timely detection" of the cases.

Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said the government is using cluster containment strategies and doing rigorous contact tracing in these hotspots to check the virus from further spreading.

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(With inputs from PTI)