The Centre on Saturday asked eight states, including Bengal, to improve testing rates, intensify surveillance and conduct priority vaccination drives in districts with large numbers of Covid-19 cases amid a steady rise in daily counts in multiple states.

Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba through a videoconference asked officials from Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bengal, Telangana and Jammu and Kashmir to look for unusual clustering of cases or hotspots and consider priority vaccinations in districts with large caseloads,

The Union health ministry said these states have reported either high active Covid cases or daily new cases over the past week. Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat have shown a surge in new cases over the past 24 hours, the ministry said.

In Maharashtra, the number of active cases — patients under clinical treatment or observation — has doubled over the past two weeks, from 34,440 on February 14 to 68,810 on Saturday, the sharpest rise among states.

Active case counts have also increased in Punjab (from around 2,300 to 4,200), Madhya Pradesh (1,800 to 2,500), Gujarat (1,700 to 2,100) and Haryana (845 to 1,100) over the past two weeks.

The rise in daily counts and active cases has stirred fears about a second wave that experts say could be averted through stringent efforts to contain what could be clusters or localised outbreaks through rigorous testing, isolation of cases, and quarantining of the contacts of cases.

Gauba also asked the state officials to maintain rigorous vigil, enforce masks and physical distancing and deal firmly with violations.