In another positive sign, virus recoveries exceeded 5 million, representing more than 82% of all cases. After 84,185 new infections were recorded on Sunday, the Covid-19 case count in India rose to 60,72,757, while deaths surpassed 95,000 with 1,030 deaths added to the number.
Despite a slowdown in the spread of infections over the past 10 days, India continues to add the highest number of daily cases in the world. The average daily case count this week (September 21-27) was more than 84,000, with more than 5.90,605 new infections reported during this period.
However, the weekly count had decreased by almost 50,000 from the previous week, when 6,40,019 cases had been registered. This was the second consecutive week of decline in cases, and the sharpest yet. Last week (Sept. 14-20), Covid-19 cases had seen a 5,000 drop from the previous seven days.
More encouraging, for the first time in recent months, the week saw fewer deaths compared to the previous one. While 7,654 deaths were recorded this week, the previous week’s count was an all-time high of 8,175.
Two states witnessed their highest peak of cases in a single day on Sunday: Kerala, which recorded 7,445 cases, and Rajasthan (2,084). Kerala recorded new highs in new cases for five days in a row. Karnataka reported 9,543 new cases, its highest count in 11 days, while Tamil Nadu recorded its highest single-day count in 22 days of 5,791, although the increase was modest from previous days.
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Maharashtra recorded 18,056 new cases and 380 deaths, the first time in five days that the number of daily casualties fell below 400. Mumbai reported 2,261 new cases and 44 deaths.
Karnataka’s Covid-19 infections crossed the 9,000 mark for the first time in nearly two weeks, taking its active case load to more than 1 lakh. Bengaluru only reported 4,217 positive cases and 15 deaths, while Mysuru reported 952 new cases and one death.
For the fourth day in a row, the city of Chennai registered more than 1,000 new cases of Covid-19, representing 1,280 of the 5,791 cases in Tamil Nadu. The city also accounts for a quarter (10,656) of the 46,341 active cases in the state. The state recorded 80 deaths on Sunday, bringing the number to 9,313 deaths. The case count is 5,80,808.
After 11 days, Covid-19 cases in Odisha dropped to fewer than 4,000 on Sunday and 3,922 tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours. The new cases have brought the total infection count to 2,09,374 in the state so far. Fourteen died of Covid, bringing the death toll to 797.
Gujarat recorded 1,411 positive cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 1.33 lakh. It was the fourth day in a row that the state had more than 1,400 cases a day, even as deaths dropped to 10 after a long time.
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