New Delhi: The number of Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours saw a steep rise, increasing from 680 — the lowest since 27 July — to 895 Friday.
The test positivity rate rose for the third consecutive day to 6.1 per cent, even as total active cases continue to decline.
R value
For four weeks now, the overall R value for Covid in India has remained under 1, driving the active cases down.
This week’s R — which is a measure of how fast an infection spreads — was 0.92. It has declined from 0.95 the week before.
Active cases
The total active Covid case count dipped to 8,04,528, maintaining the declining trend it has been following for the past three weeks. It has been eight days since the active case load fell below the nine-lakh mark.
Number of deaths
Over the last 24 hours, India has reported 895 Covid deaths, which is a significant increase over the numbers reported Thursday. The total Covid-19 death toll in India now stands at 1,12,161.
Mortality rate
Punjab has the highest case fatality rate in the country and continues to see a steady increase. From about 3.05 in the last week, the value has increased to 3.13 today.
Maharashtra and Gujarat are the two other states that have been consistently reporting the highest CFR — 2.63 and 2.31, respectively.
Kerala has a very low CFR of 0.34, despite being the state with the third-highest burden of active cases. The overall CFR for India is now about 1.52.
Daily tests
A total of 9,22,54,927 have been conducted by 1,101 government and 768 private labs across the country. Of these, 10,28,622 were conducted in the last 24 hours. The number of daily tests this week has been oscillating between 9 lakh to 11 lakh.
Positivity rate
After a four-month low in test positivity rate was recorded three days ago, India has been seeing an increase in the rate. Today, it stands at 6.1 per cent. The overall test positivity rate, calculated since the beginning of the pandemic, has reduced slightly from 8 percent to 7.9 per cent.
Recovered cases
India has the highest number of Covid recoveries in the world, with 64,53,779 people discharged from hospitals.
Of these, 70,338 Covid-19 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, bringing the recovery rate to about 87.56 per cent, which is a slight increase from 87.05 per cent Thursday.
Total cases
About 63,371 people have tested positive for Covid in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in India to 73,70,468.
India has the second largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the world, second only to the US.
High-burden states
Maharashtra has, so far, had 15,64,615 Covid cases, with 10,226 people testing positive in the last 24 hours. A total of 337 people have died in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll of the state to 41,196.
In Karnataka, 8,477 people tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the state to 7,43,848. Of these, 1,13,557 are active cases — the second highest in the country. As many as 85 people have died from Covid in the state in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 10,283.
Tamil Nadu has registered a total of 6,74,802 confirmed coronavirus patients, of which 41,872 are active cases. Over the last 24 hours, 4,410 new infections and 49 deaths have been reported in the state. As many as 10,472 people have died from the disease in the state.
In Andhra Pradesh, 4,038 people have tested positive for Covid-19 while 38 deaths have been reported over the last 24 hours.
The state has, so far, reported 7,71,503 coronavirus cases. Of these, 40,047 are active cases.
Uttar Pradesh has reported 4,47,383 coronavirus patients so far, with 2,728 new cases in the last 24 hours.
With 36 deaths in the last 24 hours, the state’s Covid-19 death toll stands at 6,543. The state has 36,295 active cases as of Friday.
Tests and positive cases
Maharashtra’s test positivity rate has been concerning, since the state has the highest burden of active cases. As of Friday, the state’s TPR is about 12.9 per cent, a slight decrease from 13.6 percent Thursday.
A TPR of above 10 per cent indicates that the state is not conducting enough tests.
Uttar Pradesh has been reporting the lowest TPR among the high-burden states. However, over the last 24 hours, the TPR of the state increased from 1.7 per cent to 2.1 per cent.