New Delhi: While testing numbers remain widely varied across the country, putting immense pressure on the positivity rate, 74 per cent of the new Covid cases were concentrated in only 10 states and union territories.
Maharashtra has alone contributed more than 18,000 cases, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka with over 7,000 and 6,000 cases, respectively. The sample positivity rates in Maharashtra and Karnataka continue to remain much higher than the national average of 8.7 per cent.
Active cases
In the last 24 hours, 83,347 new cases were reported taking the total active cases in the country to 9,68,377. This comes even as the Indian government fears an escalation after the festival season kicks in across the country, followed by the winter season — which is associated with increased respiratory infections.
Number of Deaths
The Covid casualties in the country have now crossed 90,000 with 1,085 deaths recorded in the last 24 hours. The case fatality rate in the country currently stands at 1.59 per cent. Ten states and UTs account for 83 per cent of the deaths in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra reported 392 deaths followed by Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh with 83 and 77 deaths, respectively.
Mortality rate
The top three states in terms of case fatality rates are Punjab, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan Tuesday said that Punjab is faltering on adequate testing and it is also not conducting RT-PCR tests on those patients who are symptomatic but tested negative with antigen tests. He also said that the state government had not properly communicated the availability of beds in the region to its citizens.
Daily tests
Something seems to be amiss in India’s daily testing numbers. While the country did notch a ‘record’ 12 lakh tests in one day last Saturday, the week-on-week number of tests has seen a slight fall. Meanwhile 9,53,683 tests in the last 24 hours have brought the total number of tests conducted to 6,62,79,462.
Positivity rate
The less-than-capacity testing has started putting pressure on the positivity rate once again. The rate is now 8.7 per cent and is on the rise. If an increase is indeed anticipated in the positivity rate, the testing numbers will be very crucial in the coming days.
Recovered cases
New recoveries in India have exceeded new cases for the fifth consecutive day. A total of 89,746 recoveries have been registered in the last 24 hours in the country, whereas the number of new confirmed cases stands at 83,347. With this, the total number of recoveries is 45,87,613. The recovery rate is 81.25 per cent today and India has the highest recovered cases in the world. It has also contributed 19.5 per cent of the global recoveries.
Total cases
While the government hides behind metrics such as recovery rates and active cases, the fact remains that only one country — the US — at this point of time has more cases than India, which has recorded a total of 56,46,010 cases. There are also lingering suspicions of under testing in India.
High burden states
Tamil Nadu has a total of 46,350 active cases, of which 5,337 were reported in the last 24 hours. The state has so far reported 5,52,674 cases and 8,947 deaths. The case fatality rate, at 1.62 per cent, is marginally higher than the national average.
Andhra Pradesh has recorded a total of 6,39,302 cases and has a doubling time of over 55 days. It is the second-highest disease burden state in the country after Maharashtra. The case fatality rate is, however, at a very manageable 0.85 per cent.
Maharashtra, in the last 24 hours, reported 18,390 cases and 397 deaths. This takes the total cases in the state to 12,42,770, including 33,407 deaths. The case fatality rate stands at 2.72 per cent.
In the last 24 hours, Uttar Pradesh reported 5,722 cases and 77 deaths. The total cases in the state stands at 3,64,543 of which 63,148 cases are active. The case fatality rate stands at 1.43 per cent.
Karnataka’s doubling rate is about 43 days and it has 93,172 active cases out of a total of 5,33,850 cases. The state’s CFR at 1.54 per cent is less than the national average.
Tests and positive cases
In the last 24 hours, of all the samples that Karnataka tested, about 12.5 per cent were positive. Meanwhile, the positivity rate in Maharashtra, despite the state testing over 90,000 samples every day, stood at 19.8 per cent. However, in the absence of data indicating the breakup of antigen and RT-PCR tests, these numbers mean very little.