The Union health ministry on Friday exhorted five states to take steps to lower deaths among Covid-19 patients, citing a surge in new infections and mortality in 15 districts across Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, in a videoconference, urged health secretaries and district health officials in the five states to focus on containment measures, increased testing and the effective clinical management of patients.

The states have been asked to limit and eventually break the transmission through measures such as perimeter control and active house-to-house search for new cases within containment zones.

The 15 districts are Chittoor and Prakasam in Andhra Pradesh; Mysore, Bangalore Urban, Bellari, Koppal, Dakshin Kannada and Davanagere in Karnataka; Ludhiana and Patiala in Punjab; Chennai, Coimbatore and Salem in Tamil Nadu; and Lucknow and Kanpur Nagar in Uttar Pradesh.