BackMint Covid Tracker: Karnataka reports biggest jump in active cases, deaths over past week
In Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, active cases and deaths have lately been rising in line with the national average
PremiumThe number of reported coronavirus cases in India rose 6.8 percent over the last two days to 585,493, latest data from the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) showed. This is slower than the 7.7 percent growth in the preceding 48-hour period.
The death toll has reached 17,400 after growing 5.6 percent over the last two days. This is faster than the growth in the preceding 48-hour period, when it went up by 5 percent.
The death count in India has nearly doubled in the last eighteen days. The number of infections is now twice what it was nineteen days ago, and if it continues to rise at the same rate, could hit the 700,000 mark in six days.
The continuing rise in cases poses a severe challenge for India’s strained medical capacity and overburdened health system.
Over the past few weeks, new infections and deaths have been rising faster in India than in most other badly-hit countries. The country’s death toll is the eighth worst in the world. Among countries with more than 5,000 deaths, India has recorded the second biggest spike in deaths and the biggest jump in confirmed cases over the past week.
Maharashtra now has 7,855 deaths, and Delhi’s toll has risen to 2,742. Gujarat is next on the list with 1,846 deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu (1,201), and Uttar Pradesh (697). These five states have recorded 82 percent of all covid-related deaths in India so far. Deaths have surged the most in the southern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the last seven days. Gujarat’s toll has been rising much slower than other badly-hit states.
The case fatality rates vary widely. Five states have a higher fatality rate than the national average of 3 percent - Gujarat (5.7%), Maharashtra (4.5%), Madhya Pradesh (4.2%), West Bengal (3.6%) and Delhi (3.1%).
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.
Maharashtra has 75,995 patients still under treatment, the most in the country, followed by Tamil Nadu with 38,892 active cases and Delhi with 26,270. With their recent spike in infections, Telangana is now fourth on the list with 8,785 active cases and Andhra Pradesh fifth with 7,897. Out of the 220,114 active cases in India as of Wednesday morning, the top five states together have 72 percent and the top ten states account for 86 percent. Active cases exclude deaths and recoveries from the list of confirmed cases.
As of Wednesday, 347,978 patients (59%) have now been discharged in India.
Among the ten states and union territories with the most active cases, Karnataka, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh have seen the highest percentage spike over the past seven days. The jump in active cases in Telangana in the last few days may simply reflect a reporting effect. Telangana had seen a slowdown in testing earlier. But the number of tests went up significantly after courts intervened in the matter.
Among districts, Chennai, Thane, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Pune have seen the biggest jump in the last two days. These five districts account for 41 percent of the new cases over this period, data compiled by howindialives.com last evening shows. Other districts that have seen a sharp spike over the past two days are Bengaluru in Karnataka and Palghar and Raigarh in Maharashtra.
District-wise data for Delhi are unavailable and hence not part of this list. The national capital (87,360 cases) is otherwise the worst-affected city, followed by Mumbai (77,654).
So far, at least 421 districts have had deaths in the country. Mumbai (4,556 deaths) has reported the most deaths among all districts, followed by Ahmedabad (1,439) in Gujarat, Thane (944) in Maharashtra, Chennai (889) in Tamil Nadu, and Pune (780) in Maharashtra. These five districts account for 60 percent of deaths in the country.
Kolkata (379) in West Bengal, Solapur (279), Aurangabad (265) and Jalgaon (241) in Maharashtra, and Indore (225) in Madhya Pradesh are the other districts with the highest tolls. The top ten districts account for 69 percent of all the deaths nationally. The number of coronavirus infections is likely to keep increasing in the coming days, as India’s testing numbers continue to grow. According to the Indian Council for Medical Research, more than 8.8 million samples have been tested so far, including 217,931 on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the global coronavirus case count has crossed 10.4 million, with more than 510,000 deaths, and more than 5.3 million recoveries (51%).
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