The share of coronavirus tests that are coming back positive has jumped more than 3.5 times in four weeks, the Health Ministry's data showed on Sunday, highlighting the massing Covid-19 surge that have pushed India's daily cases to all-time highs. The country added 1,52,879 fresh infections in the last 24 hours, setting another one-day record as the country's Covid tally reached over 1.33 crore cases. 839 deaths in the last 24 hour pushed the total death count to 1.69 lakh.

Sunday was the fifth consecutive day that India has recorded more than 1 lakh cases in a day.

Central teams that were deployed to 50 districts of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Punjab have reported non-adherence of Covid-19 appropriate behaviour in almost all of the affected districts, the Union health ministry said, advising these states to more strictly enforce norms to prevent spread of the coronavirus.

On the basis of feedback received from the teams, the ministry has written to the states highlighting the areas of concern, including sub-optimal containment operations and contact tracing, skewed testing and shortage of health workers. Authorities need to work in these areas, said the directive.

Of the 50 districts most affected, 30 are in Maharashtra, 11 in Chhattisgarh and nine in Punjab.

In a letter to the states, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan maintained that the Centre has also taken note of issues related to vaccine availability, and required action to augment supplies will be taken based on available stock.

He said a brief summary of key performance indicators related to testing, hospital infrastructure and vaccination, as reported by the teams, has been shared for suitable corrective actions by state or district administrations.

Thirty central teams have been deployed for the most-affected districts in Maharashtra, Bhushan said.

Amid the rapid surge, Modi in his recent interaction with chief ministers had proposed a four-day 'tika utsav' starting from the birth anniversary of social reformer Jyotiba Phule and ending on the birth anniversary of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar.

"In these four days, we have to make every effort to achieve our goals at the individual level, at the society level and at the administration level," the prime minister said.

He expressed confidence that India will once again be able to control the virus with people's participation and discharge of their responsibility while remaining alert.

With inputs from NDTV