NEW DELHI: The rate at which Covid-19 cases are doubling in India has gone up to 7.5 days from every 3.4 days before the national lockdown was imposed on March 24, underlining the impact of stringent social distancing and containment measures, officials said.As of now, 18 states have a better doubling rate than the national average of 7.5 days with Kerala and Odisha registering a rate of more than 30 days. In Kerala, the time of doubling of cases is now 72.2 days, whereas it is 39.8 days in Odisha. “The doubling rate of Covid-19 cases calculated using growth over the past seven days indicates that India’s doubling rate has improved,” Lav Agarwal , joint secretary in the health ministry, said.States and UTs where the doubling time is less than 20 days are Delhi, where it is doubling in 8.5 days, Karnataka in 9.2 days, Telangana 9.4 days, Andhra Pradesh 10.6 days, Jammu and Kashmir 11.5 days, Punjab 13.1 days, Chhattisgarh 13.3 days, Tamil Nadu 14 days and Bihar 16.4 days.Places where the doubling time is between 20 days to 30 days include Andaman and Nicobar Islands where it is 20.1 days, Haryana 21 days, Himachal Pradesh 24.5 days, Chandigarh 25.4 days, Assam 25.8 days, Uttarakhand 26.6 days and Ladakh 26.6 days.More districts have joined the list of places with no cases for a substantial period of time. Along with Mahe in Puducherry and Kodagu in Karnataka, Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand has also not reported any fresh case in the last 28 days. Besides, 59 districts in 23 states/UTs have not reported any fresh case in the last 14 days.In Goa, all Covid-19 patients have been discharged from hospital after recovery, Agarwal said.On Monday, the health ministry reported a total 17,265 confirmed cases. Of this, 14,175 are active cases. Around 1,553 new cases and 36 new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. Currently, 14.75% Covid-19 cases have recovered.“The gradually increasing percentage of recovery reflects quality of care,” Agarwal said.