India has reported the biggest single-day rise in Covid-19 cases in two months, as the government worries about the virus spreading from the most affected Kerala state, schools reopening, and the start of the festival season.

Densely populated Kerala, on India's southern tip, accounted for nearly 70 per cent of the 47,092 new infections and a third of deaths, a week after it celebrated its biggest festival during which family and social gatherings were common.

“With cases rising in Kerala, adequate steps should be taken to contain the inter-state spread of Covid-19,” Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a statement after speaking with his state counterparts in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which border Kerala.

He asked them to increase vaccination in the districts close to Kerala.