New Delhi: For the third time in the last 10 days, India breached the 10 lakh mark in daily testing, significantly bringing down the daily positivity rate, though close to 70,000 cases were reported in the last 24 hours. This number of new cases is a dip from the last few days.
The five states profiled below account for 56 per cent of the new confirmed cases, 65.4 per cent of deaths and 58.04 per cent of recoveries.
Active cases
With 69,921 cases added in the last 24 hours, the total number of active cases in the country stands at 7,85,996. Five states have posted the highest addition to the new cases — Maharashtra (11,852), Andhra Pradesh (10,004), Karnataka (6,495), Tamil Nadu (5,956) and Uttar Pradesh (4,782). Together, they account for 56 per cent of the new confirmed cases.
Number of deaths
The number of deaths has registered a small dip, going down to 819 while taking the total up to 65,288. With a cumulative figure of 536 deaths in the last 24 hours, the five high burden states together account for 65.4 per cent of the deaths added to the national total. Maharashtra reported 184 deaths, Karnataka added 113, followed by Tamil Nadu with 91, Andhra Pradesh with 85 and Uttar Pradesh with 63 deaths.
Mortality rate
The mortality rate varies widely between states, but the good news is that 15 states, including some big ones line Kerala, Assam and Odisha, are already at a case fatality rate of less than one — a target that was set by the Centre.
Daily tests
For the third time Monday, the total number of tests conducted in 24 hours crossed the 10 lakh mark. There were 10,16,920 tests conducted. More than 10 lakh tests were done first on 25 August and then again on 29 August.
Positivity rate
The positivity rate is an estimate both of whether the country is doing enough tests and also of the spread in the community. The ideal rate according to the WHO is 5 per cent. The positivity rate of tests performed Monday stands at 6.8 per cent, the lowest since 24 August.
Recovered cases
India has registered 65,081recoveries in the last 24 hours. The cumulative number of recovered patients have grown to 28,39,882, taking the recovery rate among Covid-19 patients to a further high of 77 per cent.
The top five Covid states reported the maximum number of patients discharged in the last 24 hours, cumulatively accounting for 58.04 per cent of the national figure.
While Maharashtra reported recoveries of 11,158 patients, the corresponding figures for Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka stand at 8,772 and 7,238 respectively. Tamil Nadu follows with 6,008, while Uttar Pradesh saw 4,597 patients recover.
Total cases
India is now inching closer to the 37 lakh-mark in total cases even as the testing and recoveries are up and positivity is down. In the last one week alone, over 5 lakh cases were added to the national total, making India the country where the pandemic is growing the fastest.
High burden states
With a total of 7,92,541 cases reported in Maharashtra since the start of the pandemic, the state is growing at the rate of 1.93 per cent, with a doubling time of 37 days. However, the case fatality rate of 3.15 per cent is the second highest in the country.
In Andhra Pradesh, the total case load stands at 4,34,771 and the disease has a growth rate of 2.66 per cent. The doubling time is 27 days but the case fatality rate is below one — which is a target that has been set for states by the Prime Minister and was reiterated at a recent review meeting chaired by the cabinet secretary.
Tamil Nadu’s doubling time is over 47 days, which is higher than the national average. However, the base is very large — 4,28,041 cases in all. The case fatality rate of 1.71 per cent is better than the national average.
Uttar Pradesh recorded a total of 2,30,414 cases so far, with a doubling time of 27.5 days. The case fatality rate is 1.51 per cent, but the state has really raced ahead in daily testing in the last few weeks.
Karnataka has a doubling time of 26 days and a growth rate of 2.73 per cent — this shows that the pandemic is growing faster in this state than the national average of 32.5 days doubling time and 2.22 per cent growth rate. However, with a 1.67 per cent case fatality rate, Karnataka is lower than the national average.
Tests and positive cases
Uttar Pradesh’s impressive testing numbers are borne out by the fact that Tamil Nadu, the high burden state that comes second to it in daily testing, recorded almost half as many samples as UP in the last 24 hours.