Mint Covid Tracker: Cases still rising fast in Haryana, jump 29% in Faridabad in two days

The number of reported coronavirus cases in India rose 7 percent over the last two days to 366,946, latest data from the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) showed. This is in line with the preceding 48-hour period.

The death toll has reached 12,237 after growing 24 percent over the last two days. Deaths had risen 8 percent in preceding 48 hours. The drastic jump is due to the Maharashtra government’s decision on 16 June to update its data after including 1,328 deaths that took place earlier in the outbreak. Maharashtra is the worst-hit state in India.

The death count in India has nearly doubled in the last fourteen days. The number of infections is now twice what it was eighteen days ago, and given the rate of growth in this period, could hit the 400,000-mark in three days and the 500,000-mark in eight days.

The continuing rise in cases poses a severe challenge for India’s strained medical capacity and overburdened health system.

Despite a much slower case doubling rate than earlier in the outbreak, new infections and deaths have been rising faster in India than in most other badly-hit countries. The national toll is now the eighth worst in the world. India has also recorded the biggest increase in confirmed cases over the past week among countries with over 4,000 deaths.

Maharashtra now has 5,651 deaths, and is followed by Delhi (1,904 deaths), which has surpassed Gujarat (1,560 deaths) in the list. Tamil Nadu has 576 deaths and West Bengal has 506. These five states have recorded 83 percent of all covid-related deaths in India so far. Deaths have surged the most in Haryana, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu in the last seven days.

The case fatality rates vary widely. At 6.2 percent, Gujarat has the worst fatality rate, followed by Maharashtra, where 4.8 percent of those who tested positive for coronavirus have died. Madhya Pradesh is next with 4.3 percent. India’s case fatality rate is 3.3 percent. Among all states that have had deaths, the case fatality rates are the lowest in Tripura (0.1%), Ladakh (0.1%), and Assam (0.2%).

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 51,935 patients still under treatment, the most in the country, followed by Delhi with 27,741 active cases and Tamil Nadu with 21,993. Gujarat is fourth on the list with 6,103 active cases and West Bengal fifth with 5,261 cases. Out of the 160,384 active cases in India as of Thursday morning, the top five states together have 70 percent and the top ten states account for 81 percent. Active cases exclude deaths and recoveries from the list of confirmed cases.

As many as 194,324 patients (53%) have now been discharged in India.

Among the ten states and union territories with most active cases, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, and Delhi have seen the highest percentage spike over the past seven days.

Among districts, Mumbai, Thane, Chennai, Pune, and Ahmedabad have seen the biggest jump in confirmed cases in the last two days. These five districts account for 46 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 Faridabad in Haryana, Palghar in Maharashtra, and Hyderabad in Telangana. The 29 percent rise in Faridabad was the maximum among these districts.

So far, 371 districts have had deaths in the country. Mumbai’s toll has jumped to 3,243 after taking into account earlier deaths, Thane’s jumped to 642, and Pune now has 610 deaths. Ahmedabad in Gujarat has 1,251 deaths, and Chennai in Tamil Nadu has 462. These five districts account for 61 percent of deaths in the country.

Kolkata (308) in West Bengal, Solapur (184) in Maharashtra, Indore (181) in Madhya Pradesh, Jalgaon (176) in Maharashtra, and Aurangabad (168) in Maharashtra, are the other districts with the highest tolls. The top ten districts account for 71 percent of all the deaths nationally. District-wise data for Delhi are unavailable and hence not part of this list.

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, over 6.2 million samples have been tested so far, including 165,412 till Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the global coronavirus case count has crossed 8.3 million, with over 448,000 deaths, and more than 4 million recoveries (49%).