NEW DELHI: Kerala reported more than half of the total COVID-19 cases recorded in the country in the past seven days, the central government said on Tuesday.

It warned that Covid cases are increasing in the state, where relaxations have been announced considering the Onam festival. The Centre also observed that the state has witnessed a major lapse in the fight against Covid. The test positivity rate is rising to 16 percent. Survival during the Onam season will be a serious challenge as the relaxations will continue throughout the month.

At a joint press briefing on the pandemic, an official said that 37 districts across nine states, including Kerala (11 districts) and Tamil Nadu (seven districts), were showing rising trend in daily new COVID-19 cases over the last two weeks.

As many as 44 districts across 11 states and union territories reported a weekly positivity rate of more than 10 percent, the official said.

Kerala reported 51.51 percent of the total COVID-19 cases recorded in India in past seven days, he said.

According to the central government, the reproduction number that denotes the spread of COVID-19 was more than 1 in five states -- Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

The increasing trend of reproduction number in some states is cause of concern, although there is stabilisation in COVID-19 cases in the country, it said, adding there are significant reasons to enforce pandemic control measures.

The government said Delta Plus variant of SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in 86 samples in India, including 34 in Maharashtra, as on August 9.

India logged 28,204 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in 147 days, taking the total tally of cases to 3,19,98,158, while the active cases fell to 3,88,508, the lowest in 139 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.