BackMint Covid Tracker: Deaths and infections rising fastest in India among badly-hit countries
Within India, active cases have surged most in Telangana, deaths in Haryana, over past week
PTI20-06-2020_000197A_1592893059855_1592893100604.jpg "A family suspected of COVID-19 infection waits for an ambulance to travel to hospital for treatment, in Guwahati. (PTI)")
PremiumThe number of reported coronavirus cases in India rose 7 percent over the last two days to 440,215, latest data from the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) showed.
The death toll has reached 14,011 after growing 6 percent over the last two days. While the rate of growth of infections is slightly slower than the previous 48 hour period (8 percent), the rate of growth of deaths is slightly faster than earlier (5 percent).
The death count in India has nearly doubled in the last sixteen days. The number of infections is now twice what it was nineteen days ago, and given the rate of growth in this period, could hit the 500,000-mark in four 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 other badly-hit countries. The country’s death toll is now the eighth worst in the world. Among countries with more than 5,000 deaths, India has recorded the biggest spike in deaths and the biggest jump in confirmed cases over the past week.
Maharashtra now has 6,283 deaths, and Delhi’s toll has risen to 2,233. Gujarat is next on the list with 1,684 deaths, followed by Tamil Nadu (794). At number five are the states of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, with 569 deaths in both. These six states have recorded 87 percent of all covid-related deaths in India so far. Deaths have surged the most in Haryana, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka in the last seven days.
The case fatality rates vary widely. At 6.1 percent, Gujarat has the worst fatality rate, followed by Maharashtra, where 4.6 percent of those who tested positive for coronavirus have died. Madhya Pradesh is next with 4.3 percent. India’s case fatality rate is 3.2 percent. Among all states and union territories that have had deaths, the case fatality rates are the lowest in Tripura (0.1%), , Goa (0.1%), and Ladakh (0.1%).
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 61,807 patients still under treatment, the most in the country, followed by Tamil Nadu with 27,181 active cases and Delhi with 23,820. Gujarat is fourth on the list with 6,231 active cases and Uttar Pradesh fifth with 6,152 cases. Out of the 178,014 active cases in India as of Tuesday morning, the top five states together have 70 percent and the top ten states account for 83 percent. Active cases exclude deaths and recoveries from the list of confirmed cases.
As many as 248,190 patients (56%) have now been discharged in India.
Among the ten states and union territories with most active cases, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh,and Tamil Nadu have seen the highest percentage spike over the past seven days. In Telangana’s case, the jump in active cases may simply reflect a reporting effect. Telangana had seen a slowdown in testing earlier. But the number of tests went up 36 percent over the past week after courts intervened in the matter.
Among districts, Chennai, Mumbai, Thane, Hyderabad, and Pune have seen the biggest jump in confirmed cases in the last two days. These five districts account for 42 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 Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Palghar in Maharashtra, and Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu.
So far, 397 districts have had deaths in the country. Mumbai (3,668 deaths) has reported the most deaths among all districts, followed by Ahmedabad (1,346) in Gujarat, Thane (720), and Pune (640) in Maharashtra, and Chennai (624) in Tamil Nadu. These five districts now account for 61 percent of deaths in the country.
Kolkata (336) in West Bengal, Indore (200) in Madhya Pradesh, Jalgaon (189), Aurangabad (187), and Solapur (186) in Maharashtra, are the other districts with the highest tolls. The top ten districts account for 70 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 7.1 million samples have been tested so far, including 187,223 on Monday. Meanwhile, the global coronavirus case count has crossed 9 million, with close to 500,000 deaths, and more than 4.5 million recoveries (50%).
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