New Delhi: The new Covid-19 cases in the country crossed 60,000 once again and the tests crossed 7 lakh but the daily death toll continued to hover around the 900-mark, which is likely to emerge in the coming weeks as a point of worry.
Delhi has sustained its downward trend, and a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the high burden states to bring mortality rate down to 1 per cent, two of them are already there.
Active cases
In the last 24 hours, India reported 60,963 positive cases of Covid, taking the total active cases in the country to 6,43,948 — which is less than a quarter of the total disease burden in the country.
Number of deaths
In the last 24 hours, 834 people have lost their lives because of Covid. This takes the total toll to 46,091 with a case fatality rate of just less than 2 per cent.
Mortality rate
In a video conference with chief ministers Tuesday, PM Modi asked the 10 states that account for 80 per cent of the disease burden to bring the case fatality rate down to 1 per cent. Some of them, such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, managed to achieve that landmark Wednesday.
Daily tests
Yet another day of high testing has happened. In the last 24 hours, India tested 7,33,449 samples, taking the total to 2,60,15,297. India, however, is among the lowest testing countries in the world.
Positivity rate
Positivity rate is an estimate both of the spread of infection in a community and whether the country is testing enough. According to the World Health Organization, the ideal positivity rate is 5 per cent; and so India is pushing states that have over 10 per cent to test more.
Recovered cases
The total number of people who have so far recovered from Covid is 16,39,599. While this has been an important metric that the government has used to map the pandemic, it is also a fact that with a less than 2 per cent fatality rate, 98 per cent of all Covid cases will eventually recover.
Total cases
India remains the country with the third largest Covid burden in the world. More worrying is the fact that it is also reporting the highest daily cases in the world even though three-fourths of the total 23,29,638 cases have recovered.
High burden states
Maharashtra, with a growth rate of 2.21 per cent and a doubling time of almost 33 days, is still throwing up big numbers — 9,181 cases and 293 deaths in the last one day. The case fatality rate of 3.44 per cent.
Karnataka continues to have a low doubling time even though in the last 24 hours, 4,267 new cases were reported along with 114 deaths. The case fatality rate is marginally below the national average.
Tamil Nadu is the state with the second highest disease burden in the country. In the last 24 hours, 5,914 cases and 114 deaths were reported. The growth rate is 2.02 per cent.
Andhra Pradesh has seen a massive spurt in cases in the last few weeks but the silver lining is that the deaths have been low. In the last 24 hours, 7,665 cases and 80 deaths have been reported.
Delhi’s low numbers have now held for many weeks, albeit a low testing base with a high proportion of antigen tests. In the last 24 hours, 707 cases and 20 deaths were reported.
Tests and positive cases
The vast disparity in testing between high burden states is apparent from this graph. However, it is also a fact that Delhi is the smallest state and by the per million standards, it has one of the best testing rates in the country.