India’s Wednesday tally: 200,000 cases

NEW DELHI: India’s daily tally of new infections of Covid-19 crossed the 200,000 mark on Wednesday, as the number of new cases continued to soar to record highs, with the second wave of the virus overwhelming the hospitals across the country.

India added 200,739 new Covid-19 cases in the 24 hours to Thursday, its highest single-day rise ever, pushing its tally past 14 million, the second highest in the world after the United States, according to the Union health ministry data.

The country also recorded 1,038 fatalities due to the virus, the highest since October 3. India’s Covid-19 toll stands past 175,000, although on a per-capita basis India is far behind many other countries.

India’s daily coronavirus caseload has doubled in 10 days.

With over 100,000 infections per day for the ninth consecutive day, India has added 1,388,515 cases in nine days.

Having let its guard down with religious festivals, political rallies and crowds, the country India is experiencing a vicious second wave, recording almost 2 million fresh infections this month alone.

Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan have shown a steep rise in Covid-19 daily cases, accounting for 80.76% of the new infections, the health ministry said.

Active cases too increased by 100,000 to nearly 1.5 million on Thursday, its highest ever. The active caseload was at its lowest at 135,926 on February 12 and it was at its highest at 1,017,754 on September 18, 2020.

Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and

Kerala cumulatively account for 67.16% of India’s total active cases, the ministry said. Maharashtra alone accounts for 43.54% of the country’s total active cases.

The seven-day average of national positivity rate has now soared to 11.7% for the week ending Wednesday, the second highest it has ever been. This means that more than one positive case is emerging out of every 10 samples being tested for Covid-19 across the country.

The last time the national positivity rate was higher than this was for the week ending July 25.

The seven-day average of daily infections, which denotes the case curve of a region, has now surpassed the peak of the first wave in at least 12 states and Union territories across the country, a statistic that shows the geographical spread of the current outbreak.

These are Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

All these regions have been setting new records for daily infections on a near-daily basis over the past few weeks.