Updated: September 6, 2020 12:36:32 pm
Disinfection of the COVID-19 testing kiosk at the Panchkula civil hospital (Express photo by Jaipal Singh)
Coronavirus cases in India: India has overtaken Brazil to now become the second country with the second highest number of people infected with the new coronavirus. So far it has been found that more than 41.13 lakh people in India have been infected with the virus. Brazil, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, has 40.41 lakh of infected people. Only the United States, where more than 60 lakh people have been infected so far, is ahead of India now.
In the process of overtaking Brazil on Saturday, India also set a new record for the number of new cases detected in a single day. More than 90,000 new infections were discovered that day. No country has registered more than 75,000 new cases in a single day since the outbreak began.
In the process of overtaking Brazil on Saturday, India also set a new record for the number of new cases detected in a single day.
Brazil, in recent weeks, has been reporting less than half that number on most days. In a few days in between, his daily case discovery has dropped well below 20,000. The United States has also been reporting 40,000 to 50,000 cases per day, which means that India is expected to quickly close the gap with the United States in the coming weeks as well.
While India has contributed the most new cases every day for quite some time, there has been a huge jump in daily new detections in the past 11 days. That can be explained, at least in part, by a corresponding increase in the number of tests carried out. While India’s testing capacity has increased Steadily, the numbers have risen considerably since August, even more so in the last two weeks.
In early August, 4-5 lakh of samples were analyzed every day across the country. By the end of the month, that number passed the million mark and has stayed there ever since. No country has conducted more tests in one day, except the United States.
The accompanying chart shows how tests and cases are closely related and have grown similarly, with similar growth rates. This is no surprise. The greater the number of people tested, the greater the number of people who are likely to test positive. This is because many more people have been infected with the disease than have been detected by diagnostic tests. There are limitations in the ability to perform tests, but not in the transmission of the disease.
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The greater the number of people tested, the greater the number of people who are likely to test positive.
The increasing divergence in the two curves in recent weeks is a reflection of the drop in positivity rate. Today, fewer people have been found to be infected by the same number of tests performed, compared to before. This is not surprising either. As the disease spreads in the population, the number of uninfected people, who can potentially become infected, decreases, resulting in a drop in the positivity rate. The positivity rate has been slowly but steadily declining since the second week of August.
The national panorama seems to be reflected in Maharashtra too. The state has seen a recent increase in the number of new cases that are detected, again at least partially attributable to an increase in the number of tests that are performed. On Saturday, Maharashtra reported more than 20,000 cases for the first time.
Top 10 states with the highest case load
| STATE | TOTAL POSITIVE | NEW CASES | TOTAL RECOVERIES | DECEASED |
| Maharashtra | 883,862 | 20,800 | 636,574 | 26,627 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 487,331 | 10,825 | 382,104 | 4,347 |
| Tamil nadu | 457,697 | 5,870 | 398,366 | 7,748 |
| Karnataka | 389,232 | 9,746 | 283,298 | 6,317 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 259,765 | 6,590 | 195,959 | 3,843 |
| Delhi | 188,193 | 2,973 | 163,785 | 4,538 |
| west bengal | 177,701 | 3,042 | 150,801 | 3,510 |
| Bihar | 145,861 | 1,727 | 128,376 | 750 |
| Telangana | 140,969 | 2,574 | 107,530 | 886 |
| Assam | 123,922 | 2,697 | 95,060 | 352 |
Along with the increase in cases, there has been a increased number of deaths being informed in the last days. However, the two metrics are not directly related, as the deaths that occur right now come from many people who would have been infected two to three weeks ago. But this lag effect would mean that deaths would rise even more in the coming weeks.
Right now, more than 1,000 deaths are reported nationwide each day. The total number of people who have succumbed to the disease so far exceeds 70,000, the third highest death toll in the world. Only the United States and Brazil have seen more deaths, although in proportion to the total population, or the total number of confirmed infections, several other countries have had many more deaths than India.
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