New Delhi: India recorded yet another day of highest Covid cases, but it is really the positivity rate and the daily deaths that underscore the seriousness of the situation.
There were 740 deaths in the last 24 hours, the rise in casualties having been fairly steady these past few weeks. Positivity rate now stands at 13.9% even as daily tests seem to have plateaued.
The government continues to measure the pandemic solely by recoveries — 34,692 in the last 24 hours, also a daily high.
Number of deaths
The worm on the daily deaths chart has come down from Thursday’s high. However, while that number also included pending deaths from earlier in Tamil Nadu, the toll went up by 740 in the last 24 hours.
Mortality rate
The mortality rate stack looks constant with Gujarat at the bottom and Ladakh at top of the heap. Kerala, which saw the first Covid case ever in the country, maintains 0.31% fatality despite its bigger second wave.
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Recovery rate
The last 24 hours have recorded another high with 34,602 patients having recovered. This has significantly bolstered the total number of recovered patients to cross 8 lakh — at 8,17,208. This has strongly boosted the recovery rate to reach a new high of 63.45% among Covid-19 patients.
Active cases
In the last 24 hours, 49,310 fresh cases of Covid-19 were reported across the country, taking the total number of active cases to 4,40,135. The official policy of early detection through aggressive testing along with house-to-house surveys, contact tracing and surveillance of SARI/ILI cases to actively search for cases in the highly vulnerable categories, according to the government, has been a great success.
Total cases
The total cases in the country now stand at 12,87,945. The doubling time is about 20 days and the growth rate of cases is 3.62%.
Daily tests
More than 1.5 crore swab samples (1,54,28,170) have been tested till now. In the last 24 hours, 3,52,801 samples have been tested for Covid detection. This translates to 11,179.83 tests per million (TPM) for India.
Positivity rate
While the health ministry in daily statements focuses on recovery rates, the positivity rate now stands at a fairly high 13.9%. This is a number that to be worried about because it means the disease is still spreading in the country and testing is not sufficient even now.
High-burden states
Maharashtra reported 9,895 cases and 298 deaths in the last 24 hours with a doubling time of about 25 days. The recovery rate is 55.9% and the fatality rate 3.70%.
Tamil Nadu reported 6,472 cases and 88 deaths in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate is 70.89% and the doubling time is 23.61 day. The fatality rate is 1.67%.
Delhi has recorded 1,041 cases and 26 deaths in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate now stands at 85.63% and the fatality date is 2.94%. The doubling time is 70 days.
Karnataka reported 5,030 new cases and 97 deaths in the last 24 hours. The state has a fatality rate of 2.01%, doubling time of about 11 days and a recovery rate of 36.25%.
Andhra Pradesh reported 1,625 cases and four deaths in the last 24 hours. The state is among the eight where Covid cases have shown a spurt in the last few days, and is among the participants at a review meeting with the Government of India this evening.
Tests and positive cases
Tamil Nadu is still the leader in testing but Andhra Pradesh has upped its testing game significantly. The state has a positivity of 13.7% against TN’s 10.7%.
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