Updated: November 17, 2020 3:02:23 pm
A policeman helps drummers who have traveled from villages to hire a taxi in Kolkata on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020 (AP Photo: Bikas Das).
Explanation of coronavirus numbers in India: In the past two days, Delhi has reported roughly half the number of new cases of infections than it had been reporting for the past two weeks. But it is more likely to be the result of a low number of tests than a significant rapid decrease in the spread of the disease. Over the past two days, Delhi has run less than half the tests it was doing before.
Delhi’s Chief Deputy Minister Manish Sisodia claimed that the third wave of infections in the capital had peaked, but figures suggest it might still be a bit premature to say so. Has been a decrease in numbers after more than 8,500 cases were detected on November 11, but there is no consistent pattern as of now. And, even with small numbers, Delhi remains the largest contributor of cases in the country. The only exception was on Sunday, when Kerala reported a higher number of cases.
Test numbers have been low not just in Delhi, but across the country. Over the past four days, less than one million (10 lakh) tests have been performed. Since the end of August, the test numbers have never been below 10 lakh for three days in a row. Although the daily number of tests has touched almost 15 lakh once, it has typically remained in the 11-13 lakh range on weekdays for the past more than three months. In the past four days, however, only 8.6 lakh have been tested every day on average.
Interestingly, for the past three days, Maharashtra has stopped reporting the amount of testing that takes place in the state.
New Covid-19 Cases in India Every Day
The result of a low level of testing has been a significant reduction in the number of new cases detected. On Monday, the number of new cases fell below 30,000, to a four-month low. The number of active cases is also at a four-month lows, at nearly 4.5 lakh now.
The sustained reduction in the detection of new cases in the last two months has meant that the growth rate of cases fell to less than half a percent per day for the first time. At its peak, new cases in India had risen to more than 7 percent a day in May.
Among the major states, there are only three, Delhi, Kerala and Haryana, whose growth rate (seven-day compound daily growth rate) is above one percent daily at the moment. West Bengal and Rajasthan also have a growth rate of around one percent a day.
The top 10 states with the highest burden of Covid-19 cases.
Of course, Himachal Pradesh has been growing at a much faster rate right now, at more than two percent a day, but that’s surely due to its relatively low base. Himachal Pradesh has so far registered only 30,000 cases, and in recent days it has been adding around 400 cases each day.
Meanwhile, Kerala has overtaken Uttar Pradesh to become the state with the fifth highest number of cases in the country. At the current rate, even Delhi seems poised to soon overtake Uttar Pradesh. The increase in cases in Delhi has somewhat lightened the attention on Kerala, but the state still reports a large number of cases every day. So far it has recorded more than 5.27 lakh of infections. The southern states now comprise four of the top five states with the highest number of infections in the country. The only one missing is Telangana, which has the 10th highest number of cases. 📣 Express Explained is now on Telegram
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