India is the third country after the United States and Brazil to register 4 million cases of coronavirus. While India took the longest to increase cases from one to 1 million (168 days), the subsequent growth of infections has been the fastest.
Cases in India have risen from 1 million to 4 million in 50 days. The same increase took 75 days in Brazil and 86 in the United States. India’s account went from 3 million to 4 million in just 13 days, the fastest increase of 1 million so far. The fastest previous was 16 days, recorded in both India and the US.
However, India’s death rate remains by far the lowest among the three countries. At the 4 million mark, India has recorded 69,552 deaths from the virus. At the same stage, the US had reported more than 1.4 lakh deaths and Brazil over 1.2 lakh.
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On Friday, India recorded an increase of 87,852 new cases, led by a massive increase of 19,218 infections in Maharashtra, according to data from the last 24 hours collected by TOI from state governments. Deaths from infections totaled 1,062, the fourth consecutive day for more than 1,000 victims in the country. Active cases increased by 17,000, the biggest increase in a day in quite some time, to almost 8.5 lakh. Recoveries from the infection amounted to nearly 31 lakh.
In addition to Maharashtra, four other states reported their largest single-day increase in cases: Chhattisgarh (3,203 cases, including 1,515 as of midnight Thursday), Haryana (1,884), Rajasthan (1,570) and Arunachal Pradesh (214).
On the 180th day since the first Covid-19 case was detected in Maharashtra, the state added 19,218 new cases, its highest increase in a single day. Even Mumbai, which has been reporting an increase in cases for the past week, added 1,929 infections, its second-highest daily increase so far and the highest in 69 days. The highest peak in a single day in Mumbai (2,077 cases) was reported on June 27.
Maharashtra has also been adding more than 350 deaths over the past two days. On Friday, it reported 378 deaths, bringing the total deaths from Covid-19 to 25,964. Mumbai reported 35 deaths, bringing its figure to 7,799.
A senior state official said the increase in cases in Mumbai can be attributed to the movement and free mixing of people during the 10-day Ganesh festival and the subsequent unblocking.
Andhra Pradesh reported 10,776 Covid-19 cases on Friday, bringing the number of cumulative cases to 4.76,506, even as 76 more people died in the past 24 hours. While the total number rose to 4,276, as many as 12,334 Covid-19 patients were declared cured on Friday, making it the highest single-day recovery so far in the state.
In a worrying new trend in Indore, Madhya Pradesh’s Covid-19 hotspot, the number of children under 12 years old infected with the virus has tripled in just under six weeks: from 398 on July 20 to 1,158 on July 1. September. Additionally, children under the age of 12 accounted for about 6.7% of Indore’s Covid count on July 20, which has now risen to 8.6%.
Tamil Nadu added 5,976 new cases on Friday, bringing the case count to 4,51,827, with 51,633 people still in treatment. The state reported 79 deaths, bringing the cumulative balance to 7,687. For the second day, Chennai cases remained below 1,000 in 992 and 12 people succumbed to the infection.
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