Highest single-day spike of 40k pushes count past 1.1 mn

TN, AP and Maha account for nearly half of Sunday’s cases, curve plateaus in few urban centres

nNEWDELHI:DAILY cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) surpassed the 40,000 mark for the first time since the outbreak on Sunday, taking the national tally of infections past 1.1 million, with the latest 100,000 cases being reported in three days.

India reported 40,118 new cases and 675 deaths on Sunday, taking the total number of cases to 1,116,597, and deaths to 27,487.

While the spread of the virus, Sars-cov-2, which causes Covid-19, is beginning to show signs of plateauing in some urban epicentres of the contagion such as Delhi, other regions such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Bihar have started showing spikes in daily new cases.

Nearly half the new cases on Sunday came from three states, Maharashtra (9,518), Tamil Nadu (4,979) and Andhra Pradesh (5,041) – all record single-day highs. Several states and UTS such as Uttar Pradesh (2,211 new cases), West Bengal (2,278), Rajasthan (934) and Jammu and Kashmir (701) reported record single-day case spikes on Sunday.

Delhi reported 1,211 new cases, Karnataka 4,120 and Telangana 1,296, according to respective state bulletins.

In the past week, until July 19, India recorded more than 34,000 new cases a day on average, compared to 26,000 a week before — a statistic that highlights the rate of cases growing in the country. The doubling rate of cases — the number of days it takes for infections to double — is currently 20.2 days.

Experts said that the focus of the battle against the virus now needs to shift to rural parts that traditionally have been beyond the reach of adequate health care mechanisms, and where new hot spots are now feared to surface. The number of recovered Covid-19 patients in India has crossed 700,000, with the recovery rate standing at 62.7%.

As of Sunday, the country had 388,786 active cases and the case fatality rate (CFR) was 2.5%, against the global average of 4.2%. The US, which has 3,859,590 cases and 143,042 deaths, has a fatality rate of 3.7%; and Brazil, with 2,076,635 cases and 78,871 deaths, is at 3.8%.

Amid an increase in the num

48,411 935 Madhya Pradesh

22,600

Dadar & Nagar Haveli

602

Chhattisgarh

5,407

Maharashtra

310,455 45,076

Goa

3,657

Karnataka

63,772

Kerala

12,480 17

Telangana

837 151 173 4,120 23,065 821 414 15,311 9,518

3,775 2,218

5,371 169,569

*Data compiled by covid19india.org and cross-checked from inputs by HT’S correspondents and news agencies. 'Cases reassigned to states' is as per data released by the MOHFW. This figure has not been included in the calculation for the daily new cases.

ber of new cases recently, several states such as Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, and Uttar Pradesh have reimposed lockdowns of various degrees in several districts. Testing has been ramped

up across the country in the past few weeks.

According data released by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the country has tested 300,000 samples every day over the past week.

170,693

Bihar

Odisha

17,437

Tamil Nadu

26,379

Jharkhand

5,552

49,650 22,890 736

Andhra Pradesh

Puducherry

1,999 105 5,041 4,979 1,412 167

Experts said that India’s low mortality rate points to the country’s effective management. “There may be a rise in cases but the good thing is that our mortality rate is low, meaning we are losing fewer patients to Covid-19.