India's painfully high death count in the second wave of the Covid pandemic is finally coming down. In the week ended Sunday, nationwide fatalities dipped by 17%, the first decline in 12 weeks, even as the daily death toll dropped below 3,000 after 34 days. Meanwhile, the second wave is now receding across all states and Union territories except a few in the northeast and in Ladakh. While fresh cases of the virus fell for the third week running, this week's numbers showed the most comprehensive decline yet as infections had started to fall in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Assam — states that had shown a rising trend till last week.