India sees highest spike in deaths as Bihar revises data
Covid-19 toll jumped to 6,148 in a day after Bihar revises data, puts the total number of fatalities at 9,429
With Bihar revising its figures and putting the total number of fatalities caused by Covid-19 at 9,429, India reported its highest single-day spike of 6,148 deaths, pushing the toll to 359,676, while 94,052 new cases took the tally to 29,183,121, according to the Union health ministry’s data updated on Thursday.
The active cases have reduced to 1,167,952 comprising 4 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has improved to 94.77 per cent, it said.
A net decline of 63,463 cases has been recorded in the total number of Covid-19 cases in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. Also, 2,004,690 tests were conducted on Wednesday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of Covid-19 in the country to 3,72,198,253, while the daily positivity rate was recorded at 4.69 per cent. It has been less than 10 per cent for 17 consecutive days, the ministry said.
Weekly positivity rate was recorded at 5.43 per cent. Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for the 28th consecutive day.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,76,55,493, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.23 per cent, the data stated.
Cumulatively, 24,27,26,693 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive in the country.
India’s Covid-19 tally had crossed the 2 million mark on August 7, 2020, 3 million on August 23, 4 million on September 5 and 5 million on September 16.
It went past 6 million on September 28, 7 million on October 11, crossed 8 million on October 29, 9 million on
November 20 and surpassed the 10 million mark on December 19.
India crossed the grim milestone of 20 million on May 4. The 6,148 new fatalities include 3,971 from Bihar, 661 from Maharashtra, 405 from Tamil Nadu, 192 from Karnataka and 156 from Kerala.
Covid-19 death toll in Bihar was on Wednesday revised drastically upwards by the state health department, which put the total number of fatalities caused by the pandemic at 9,429.
According to the department, which had till the previous day stated the number of deaths to be under 5,500, as many as 3,951 deaths have been added to the toll after verification.
However, it was not specified as to when these additional deaths took place though a breakup was provided for all 38 districts.
Going by the fresh figures, the number of lives lost in the second wave is close to 8,000 and a nearly six times increase in the death toll since April.
Patna district bore the brunt of the outbreak, accounting for a total of 2,303 deaths. Muzaffarpur was a distant second with 609 fatalities.
A total of 359,676 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 101,833 from Maharashtra, 32,291 from Karnataka, 28,170 from Tamil Nadu, 24,704 from Delhi, 21,516 from Uttar Pradesh, 16,555 from West Bengal, 15,293 from Punjab and 13,271 from Chhattisgarh.
The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.