Mint Covid Tracker: Number of districts with at least 1 covid death crosses 500

The number of Indian districts with at least one covid-19 death went past 500 over the weekend, data compiled by howindialives.com on Sunday evening showed. Local outbreaks are spreading fast in India, with as many as 382 out of over 700 districts in the country reporting 20 or more new coronavirus cases in the last 48 hours. While outbreaks in major states are limited to large cities, Andhra Pradesh is reporting a significant surge across nine districts.

Overall, India has 390,459 active cases—or patients still under treatment—as of Monday morning, while 27,497 deaths have been attributed to the infection, latest data from the health ministry showed. Active cases rose 25% in the last seven days, compared to 20% in the week-ago period (6 July to 13 July). The seven-day spike in deaths is 18%, in line with the preceding week. The seven-day rolling averages have been considered for these calculations since they minimize the effect of volatile and delayed reporting.

For over a month, 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 10,000 deaths), India has recorded the biggest spike in deaths as well as active cases over the past week.

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 (11,854), Delhi (3,628), Tamil Nadu (2,481), Gujarat (2,142) and Karnataka (1,331) have reported the most deaths. These states together account for 78% of all covid-related deaths in India so far. However, only two of them, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, have seen a bigger spike than the national average in the last seven days.

Of the 12 states with the most active cases, Assam, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have reported the biggest percentage jumps in deaths. In terms of active cases, Bihar, Karnataka and West Bengal led the surge in this period, 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.

Among states with more than 10,000 cases so far, Delhi and Tamil Nadu have conducted the most tests per million population per day in the last two weeks, and West Bengal and Bihar the fewest, 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 three districts in Andhra Pradesh—East Godavari (40%), Anantapur (20%) and Kurnool (20%). In absolute numbers, Pune and Thane in Maharashtra and Bengaluru in Karnataka reported the biggest increase in cases during this period, data from howindialives.com showed.

So far, at least 506 out of over 700 districts in India have had at least one covid-related death. Mumbai (5,714 deaths) has reported the most, followed by Thane (2,024), Ahmedabad (1,550), Chennai (1,435), and Pune (1,387). Bengaluru in Karnataka, Kolkata in West Bengal, and Jalgaon in Maharashtra are the other districts with 400 or more deaths. This list does not include Delhi, where the government does not provide district-wise data. State-level data shows Delhi (3,628 deaths) has the second-worst toll after Mumbai.

The number of coronavirus infections is likely to keep increasing in the coming days, with India now consistently testing over 250,000 samples per day. According to the Indian Council for Medical Research, over 14 million samples have been tested as of Sunday, compared to 11.8 million samples a week ago.

India has reported 1,118,043 coronavirus cases in all since the beginning of the outbreak in late January. If the pace of increase in cases since early July sustains, India can hit the 1.5 million mark in nine days’ time.

Out of all confirmed cases, 63%, or 700,087 had been discharged by Monday, as compared to 54% a month ago. India’s case fatality rate—2.5 deaths per 100 infections—is lower than the global average of 4.2% at the moment.

Meanwhile, the global coronavirus case count has crossed 14.4 million, including over 605,000 deaths and more than 8.1 million recoveries (56%).