New Delhi: After recording a major spurt in cases for two consecutive days, positive cases of Covid-19 came down marginally Monday due to increased testing. The positivity rate at the national level has also almost halved even though data indicates that there are huge disparities between states’ positivity rates.
Active cases
India reported over 90,000 cases in the past two days, but the number of new cases in the country came down marginally Monday to 75,809. However, if past trends are anything to go by, the number may bounce back to higher levels in the next few days.
Number of deaths
In the last 24 hours, 1,133 people have died of Covid-19, taking the total number of deaths to 72,775. Even though, the rising positive cases have ensured that India’s case fatality rate is far better than the global average, the absolute number will become a cause of concern in the coming days.
Mortality rate
The case fatality rate (CFR) of all states are showing a gradual decline as cases continue to skyrocket across the country. The only exception is Punjab, which has shown a marginal increase in case fatality in the past few days. Punjab is now at par with Maharashtra, which has the dubious distinction of being the state with the most number of cases and also the second highest CFR.
Daily tests
India has come a long way from conducting just one test at the National Institute of Virology, Pune, in January 2020 to 5,06,50,128 total tests Tuesday. It conducted 10,98,621 tests in the past 24 hours.
Testing has, in fact, increased 3.2 times — to 10,46,470 in the first week of September from 3,26,971 in the third week of July.
Positivity rate
India’s continuing efforts to test over a million samples every day, combined with the slight dip in cases in the last 24 hours, have ensured that the soaring positivity is curbed. Today it is down to a manageable level but testing may need to be pushed even further to reach the 5 per cent target.
Recovered cases
In the last couple of months, India has mapped the status of the pandemic in the country more by the number of recoveries than by fresh cases. The government has been issuing detailed statements every day about how large numbers of people are recovering from the disease, thanks to a graded approach. Over three-quarters of the cases in the country have now recovered.
Total cases
Now that India is officially the country with the second highest tally of Covid-19 cases in the world, all eyes are trained on whether it will dislodge the US from the top spot and if so, when. At the present rates of the growth of both countries, it could happen some time in the next month. However, the limiting factor could well be the testing resources.
High burden states
Maharashtra’s positive cases in the last 24 hours registered a significant decline with 16,429 cases, even though 430 people died of Covid-19 in the state Monday. The total cases in the state is currently 9,23,641.
In Andhra Pradesh, the total number of cases currently stands at 5,06,493 — with 8,368 cases and 70 deaths registered in the last 24 hours. The case fatality rate, however, continues to remain below one, a small consolation for a state that has two districts among the 15 worst-hit in the country.
Karnataka has a doubling time of less than 30 days against a national average of 33 days. However, six districts from the state figure in the list of the worst-affected districts in India that have been drawn up by the central government for special intervention. Karnataka has recorded 4,04,324 cases so far.
Uttar Pradesh has reported 5,568 cases and 56 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking its total number of cases to 2,71,851. The state has a doubling time of a little over 30 days and a case fatality rate of 1.46 per cent, which is less than the national average.
Tamil Nadu continues to report high numbers even though other high-burden states are registering cases at a much faster rate. The state has reported 4,69,256 cases so far and its doubling time stands at almost 54.5 days.
Tests and positive cases
Data show that while one of every 25 samples in Uttar Pradesh tested positive in the last 24 hours, in Maharashtra almost one in every five samples were positive. All states are now ramping up testing to various degrees, but UP and Bihar are conducting the highest number of tests currently.