Updated: August 30, 2020 4:44:39 pm
A healthcare worker takes swab samples for Covid-19 testing in New Delhi on August 29, 2020 (Express photo: Praveen Khanna)
Coronavirus cases in India: In recent days, an almost simultaneous increase in cases of new coronavirus has been observed in many parts of the country. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, Odisha, Telangana have started reporting many more cases than they were doing a week ago.
In some states, such as Telangana, Karnataka or Odisha, this could be attributed, at least partially, to the increase in the number of tests that are being carried out. But in many other states, there has been no significant increase in the number of tests.
The steepest increase is being seen in Maharashtra, where more than 16,000 new cases were detected on Saturday. Before the current spell, the state discovered fewer than 12,000 cases a day.
Similarly, Andhra Pradesh had shown signs of decline after a very rapid increase in July. But in the past five days, daily numbers in the state have returned to levels – more than 10,000 cases per day – seen when the state was experiencing peak growth. Andhra Pradesh is likely to overtake Tamil Nadu on Sunday and become the state with the second highest number of cases in the country after Maharashtra.
But the most interesting trend seems to be unfolding in the national capital. Delhi had almost started celebrating after a noticeable change in the situation since the last week of June. For nearly a month and a half, daily cases had continued to decline steadily and fell below 1,000, the growth rate had fallen well below one percent, and more patients were recovering each day than reporting they were sick. It almost seemed as if the epidemic had peaked and the downhill journey had begun.
But in the last ten days, Delhi is undergoing a change once again. The trend has continued long enough to dismiss it as an aberration. About 2,000 cases were discovered in the city on Saturday, a level not seen since July 10. The growth rate has started to rise, reaching almost one percent a day. There have been some suggestions that the onset of the return of migrant worker populations from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh could be behind the recent increase. Given that Metro rail services start after a week and gatherings of 100 are allowed in the latest relaxation of lockdown rules, infections are expected to spread further north, at least in the short term. The Delhi government has already announced that it would further increase its testing capacity to meet the challenge, a strategy that appeared to have worked to slow the spread of the infection the previous time.
Despite the growth, Delhi is still likely to be overtaken by Pune, the city that has contributed the highest number of cases in the country, in a couple of days. Pune at the moment has more than 1.69 lakhs of people who have been infected with the virus at some point, while Delhi is only slightly ahead at 1.71 lakh. Almost four thousand new cases were detected in Pune on Saturday.
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The top ten states with the maximum load of cases:
| STATE | TOTAL POSITIVE | NEW CASES | TOTAL RECOVERIES | DECEASED |
| Maharashtra | 764,281 | 16,286 | 554,711 | 24,439 |
| Tamil nadu | 415,590 | 6,352 | 355,727 | 7,137 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 414,164 | 10,548 | 312,687 | 3,796 |
| Karnataka | 327,076 | 8,324 | 235,128 | 5,502 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 219,457 | 5,633 | 162,741 | 3,356 |
| Delhi | 171,366 | 1,954 | 152,922 | 4,404 |
| west bengal | 156,766 | 3,012 | 127,644 | 3,126 |
| Bihar | 132,935 | 2,087 | 115,074 | 679 |
| Telangana | 123,090 | 2,924 | 90,988 | 818 |
| Assam | 103,794 | 2,426 | 82,510 | 289 |
Odisha also crossed the one lakh mark on Saturday, the 11th state in the country to do so. It detected more than 3,000 new cases for the first time. In the last week, the state has added more than 22,000 new infections.
The daily increase in Covid-19 cases in India.
The total number of infected people in the country surpassed the 3.5 million mark on Saturday, with the discovery of nearly 79,000 new cases, the highest so far. Over the past four days, India has reported more than 75,000 new cases. The death count has reached 63,500.
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