Updated: September 24, 2020 7:23:13 pm
Health workers rest while waiting to collect nasal swab samples for COVID-19 in Hyderabad (AP)
Coronavirus cases in India: In keeping with the national trend, the states with the five highest coronavirus cases in the country have also shown a welcome decline in the number of active cases over the past few days.
The drop in active cases has been most notable in Andhra Pradesh, where it has dropped by almost 30% in the past two weeks. Andhra Pradesh, which was consistently reporting more than 10,000 new cases every day through September 10, has slowed down. New detections have dropped to less than 8,000 now, while recoveries have surpassed 10,000 in recent days.
The state’s daily growth rate has halved from what it was at the beginning of the month, from more than 2.5% to 1.25% now.
In Maharashtra, active cases have dropped by almost ten percent in the last week, from more than 3 lakh to less than 2.75 lakh now.
In Maharashtra, active cases have dropped by almost ten percent in the last week, from more than 3 lakh to less than 2.75 lakh now. In Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, the declines have been slightly smaller, but remain significant.
This is also in line with what is being observed at the national level. During the last six days, the recoveries have passed new case detection. This is the longest that this trend has been maintained at the national level. The result has been that active cases in the country have dropped from 10.17 lakh on September 17 to 9.66 lakh now. Never before since the start of the pandemic has there been such a steady decline in active cases.
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Over the past six days, recoveries have exceeded new case detection.
Part of the reason for this lies in a slight reduction in the number of tests that are being run in the last week. The current average of daily tests in the last seven days is the lowest since the beginning of the month, although not by a very large amount. In the last week, an average of 9.81 lakh of samples were analyzed every day. About ten days ago, this average was 10.94 lakh.
The daily detection of new cases has remained at 90,000 for more than two weeks. It was on September 5 that the more than 90,000 cases were first discovered. After that, it has fluctuated between 75,000 and 98,000.
Just over 86,500 new cases were detected across the country on Wednesday
Recoveries, meanwhile, have shown a sharp rise in the past week, even crossing the one lakh mark on Monday. Recoveries that exceed new detections are considered a very healthy sign, especially if it stays that way for a long period of time. That may be an indication that the peak could be close, although at this stage, it would still be too early to say that. Especially since the experience of Delhi has shown that such trends, even if they persist for more than a month, are not irreversible and can change at any time.
So far, several states, notably Andhra Pradesh, have consistently reported higher numbers of recoveries compared to new case detection. That is what is causing the decline in active cases.
Top ten states with the highest case load
On Wednesday, just over 86,500 new cases were detected across the country, while more than 87,300 people were declared to have recovered from the disease. So far, 57.32 lakh people in India have tested positive for the disease, of whom 46.74, or nearly 82 percent, have recovered. The death count now stands at 91,500, and more than 1,000 deaths are reported each day.
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