BackMint Covid Tracker: In last 7 days, UP and Rajasthan saw bigger surge than southern states
At the current pace of growth, India is likely to cross 1 million coronavirus cases in four days’ time
PremiumUttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have reported a bigger rise in active coronavirus cases in the past week than some badly-hit southern states, Mint calculations based on latest health ministry data showed. Meanwhile, with fast-spreading virus infections, Karnataka has surpassed Delhi to become the state with the third highest number of active cases.
Overall, India has 301,609 active cases—or patients still under treatment—as of Monday morning, while 23,174 deaths have been attributed to the infection, the data showed. Active cases rose 20% in the last seven days, nearly in line with the week-ago period (29 June to 6 July). The seven-day spike in deaths is 18%, compared to 20% in the preceding week. The seven-day rolling averages have been considered for these calculations since they minimize the effect of volatile and delayed reporting.
Over the past few weeks, new infections and deaths have been rising faster in India than in most other badly-hit countries. The country has the third highest number of active cases, after the United States and Brazil. The toll is the eighth highest in the world. Among high-fatality countries (more than 5,000 deaths), India has recorded the second biggest spike in deaths as well as active cases over the past week, after Colombia.
With cases rising, India’s health facilities and workforce continue to be under severe strain. The risk of further spread is higher now as the economy has started to reopen and most public movement is allowed.
Among states, Maharashtra (10,289), Delhi (3,371), Gujarat (2,045), Tamil Nadu (1,966) and Uttar Pradesh (934) have reported the most deaths. These states together account for 80% of all covid-related deaths in India so far. However, only two of them, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, have seen a bigger spike than the national average in the last seven days.
Of the 10 states with the most active cases, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have reported the biggest percentage jumps in deaths in this period. Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan led the surge in active cases, based on the seven-day rolling averages.
It is worth noting that data quality on cases and deaths vary across countries and regions because of factors such as differences in testing standards, and in protocols being followed for recording covid-related deaths. For example, the rise in cases in Telangana in recent weeks may simply reflect a reporting effect—it ramped up testing after it was criticised for not testing enough.
However, Telangana remains one of the states with the fewest tests per million population. Among states with more than 10,000 cases so far, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh have conducted the most tests per million population as per the latest data, and Telangana and Bihar the least, data collected by The Hindu showed.
Among the 15 districts with the highest number of new cases in the last 48 hours, the biggest percentage spikes were reported by Bengaluru in Karnataka (20%), Kamrup Metropolitan Area in Assam (18%) and North 24 Parganas in West Bengal (14%). In absolute numbers, Thane and Pune in Maharashtra and Bengaluru in Karnataka reported the biggest increase in cases during this period, data compiled by howindialives.com last evening shows.
So far, at least 477 out of over 700 districts in India have had at least one covid-related death. Mumbai (5,288 deaths) has reported the most, followed by Thane (1,634), Ahmedabad (1,519), Chennai (1,254), and Pune (1,125). Kolkata in West Bengal and Solapur, Jalgaon, Aurangabad in Maharashtra are the other districts with more than 300 deaths. This list does not include Delhi, where the government does not provide district-wise data. State-level data shows Delhi (3,371 deaths) has the second-worst toll after Mumbai.
The number of coronavirus infections is likely to keep increasing in the coming days, with India testing more samples per day than earlier in the outbreak. According to the Indian Council for Medical Research, more than 11.8 million samples have been tested as of Sunday, compared to 9.9 million samples a week ago.
India has reported 878,254 coronavirus cases in all since the beginning of the outbreak in late January. If the pace of increase in cases since mid-June sustains, India can hit the 1,000,000 mark in four days’ time.
Out of all cases confirmed so far in India, 63%, or 553,470, had been discharged by Monday, as compared to 50% a month ago. India’s case fatality rate—2.6 deaths per 100 infections—is lower than the global average of 4.4% at the moment.
Meanwhile, the global coronavirus case count has crossed 12.8 million, with close to 570,000 deaths, and more than 7 million recoveries (55%).
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!
