India posted a 37% growth in cases from September 13 to October 4, a decline from 56% growth in the previous three weeks.
Daily cases in the country peaked around September 13. Since then, as many as 21 states and UTs have grown at a rate higher than the national average, indicating that the country may continue to see the pandemic rise in some parts of the country while cases drop elsewhere.
At the other end of the list was Bihar, where cases have grown at roughly half the national rate (19%) in the past three weeks, the lowest growth recorded by any state. The next lowest growth was recorded in Tamil Nadu, where cases increased by 23%, followed by Gujarat (26%), Andhra Pradesh (27%), Telangana (27%) and Assam (32%).
In the middle were the two worst-hit states: Maharashtra, which grew at 36% (a fraction lower than the national average) and Karnataka, which grew at 39%, a shade higher than India’s rate.
Meanwhile, 59,471 new cases were recorded on Monday, the first time since Aug. 24 that the daily count had fallen below the 60,000 mark. While the case count drops every Monday, the number has been progressively decreasing over the last four Mondays: 80,663 on September 14, 73,279 on September 21, and 66,251 on September 28.
In another indication of the sharp rise in the pandemic in Kerala, the state now has the highest number of active cases per million people in the country, with 2,421 cases per million compared to 2,297 in Maharashtra, 1,845 in Karnataka and 1,503 in Delhi.
(With input from Preetu Nair in Kochi)
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