Regions with best improvement

Delhi saw India’s biggest change in average positivity rate in the past 10 days – there was a 14.3 percentage point drop between May 7 and May 17 (from 27.4% to 13.1%). It was followed by Chhattisgarh, where the positivity rate dropped 13.2 percentage points, from 25.4% to 12.2% in the same time period, and Haryana, where it dropped 10.4 percentage points. Goa features in the fourth spot in terms of most improved positivity rate (drop of 9.8 percentage points), but despite the drop, the state still has the highest positivity rate in the country. In the past week, more than a third (36.5%) of all samples tested in the state have returned positive for Covid-19. The coastal state has been in the news over the past two weeks due to severe shortage of hospital beds and medical oxygen resulting in dozens of deaths. But a drop in positivity rate offers the region some much-needed light at the end of the tunnel.

Other regions that have seen significant improvements in positivity rate are Jharkhand (a fall of 8 percentage points, from 15% to 7.0%), Bihar (down 7.5 percentage points, from 14.8% to 7.2%), Madhya Pradesh ( 19.3% to 12%), Maharashtra (down 6 percentage points from 21.7% to 15.6%) and Uttar Pradesh (down 6 points, from 11.9% to 5.9%). Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are four of India’s five most populous states – together housing more than 40% of the country’s population. This phenomenon is clearly reflected in drastic reduction on the load on India’s health care system in these regions. Pleas for help on social media for life-saving resources like hospital beds, medicines, oxygen, even ambulances had become commonplace towards the peak of the outbreak in regions such as Delhi, Maharashtra and UP. Over the past 10 days, the shortage of supply in these regions have dropped. Nagaland, meanwhile, is the only northeastern state where positivity rate is dropping (down 0.9 percentage points, from 21.7% on May 7 to 20.8% on May 17).