After 68 days, daily Covid cases fall below 1 lakh, toll under 2,000

NEW DELHI: Covid-19 numbers in the receding second wave in the country went below two milestones on Monday, with daily cases falling under 1 lakh for the first time in 68 days and the day’s death toll going below 2,000 after 49 days.
The low case count, however, came out of a drastically reduced number of tests. On Sunday, some 15.9 lakh Covid tests were conducted, less than half the number done on the previous day (35.7 lakh), according to the covid19india.org website that tracks these numbers.
As a result of lower testing, the positivity rate on Monday shot up to 5.4%, up from 2.8% recorded on Sunday.
India recorded 86,161 fresh cases on Monday, the lowest count since April 1, as per TOI’s Covid database. The last time the country’s daily case tally was below 1 lakh was on April 5. At the peak of the second wave, India had reported 4,14,554 fresh cases in a day (May 6).
Similarly, the day’s death toll from the virus was recorded at 1,867, not counting 186 old deaths added to Maharashtra’s tally. This was the fewest single-day fatalities in India since April 19, when 1,693 deaths were recorded. Since then, the daily toll has remained above 2,000.
While the case tally may increase slightly in the coming days as testing hopefully improves on weekdays, the overall declining trend continues so far.
Tamil Nadu again led the country in recording the highest number of cases and deaths on Monday. However, for the first time since May 1, the state reported less than 20,000 daily cases with Monday’s count at 19,448. On Monday, Tamil Nadu was among just three states which recorded more than 10,000 cases. The other were Karnataka (11,958) and Maharashtra (10,219).