Mint Covid Tracker: Deaths in Delhi jump nearly 90% in a week, cross 500

The number of reported coronavirus cases in India rose 9.1 percent over the last two days to 198,706, latest data from the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) showed. The death toll reached 5,598, rising 8.4 percent over the same period. Both numbers had risen nearly 9.8 percent each in the preceding 48 hours.Coronavirus

The death count in India has nearly doubled in the last seventeen days. The number of infections is now twice what it was fourteen days ago, and given the rate of growth in this period, could hit the 250,000-mark in five 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 are now rising faster in India than in most other badly-hit countries. Among countries with death counts greater than 1,000, India has recorded the fourth fastest increase in confirmed cases and second biggest jump in deaths over the past week. Chile has seen a sudden spurt in cases and deaths and leads the spike in both.

At 2,362 deaths, Maharashtra has the highest toll in the country so far due to covid-19, followed by Gujarat (1,063), Delhi (523), Madhya Pradesh (358), and West Bengal (325). These five states have recorded 83 percent of all covid-related deaths in India so far. In the past seven days, deaths have surged the most in Delhi, Bihar, and Tamil Nadu in percentage terms.

The case fatality rates vary widely. At 6.2 percent, Gujarat has displaced West Bengal as the state with the worst fatality rate. In West Bengal, 5.6 percent of those who tested positive for coronavirus have died. Madhya Pradesh is next with 4.3 percent. India’s case fatality rate is now 2.8 percent. Among all states that have had deaths, the case fatality rates are the lowest in Chhattisgarh (0.2%), Assam (0.3%), and Odisha (0.3%).

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 37,543 patients still under treatment, the most in the country, followed by Delhi with 11,565 and Tamil Nadu with 10,141 active cases. Gujarat is fourth on the list with 5,357 active cases and West Bengal fifth with 3,141 cases. Out of the 97,581 active cases in India as of Tuesday morning, the top five states together have 69 percent and the top ten states account for 82 percent. Active cases exclude deaths and recoveries from the list of confirmed cases. As many as 95,527 patients have now been discharged in India.

Among the ten states with most active cases, Delhi, West Bengal, and Karnataka have seen the highest percentage spike over the past seven days.

Among districts, Mumbai, Chennai, Thane, Ahmedabad, and Pune have seen the biggest jump in confirmed cases in the last two days. These five districts account for 47 percent of 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 Gurugram in Haryana, Hyderabad in Telangana, and Kancheepuram in Taml Nadu.

So far, 295 districts have had deaths in the country. Mumbai (1,319 deaths) has reported the most deaths among all districts, followed by Ahmedabad (864) in Gujarat, Pune (335) and Thane (232) in Maharashtra, and Kolkata (214) in West Bengal. These five districts now account for 59 percent of deaths in the country.

Chennai (141) in Tamil Nadu, Indore (134) in Madhya Pradesh, Jaipur (94) in Rajasthan, Jalgaon (72) in Maharashtra, and Surat (71) in Gujarat are the other districts with the highest tolls. The top ten districts account for 69 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 39.66 lakh samples have been tested so far, including 1.29 lakh in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the global coronavirus case count is now close to 6.2 million, with over 375,000 deaths, and more than 2.6 million recoveries.