Worry mounts for 16 states as daily Covid-19 cases tick upward

Sixteen states in the country are currently showing an upward trajectory in daily new Covid-19 cases, according to government data, with six states getting added to the list in the last 10 days, even as a four-day special vaccination drive to cover a sizeable part of the eligible population began on Sunday.

“The second wave is showing more transmissibility, and because there is still a large pool of susceptible population, the disease seems to be affecting those districts more that were not affected in the previous wave. That’s the reason we have to be extra careful; particularly about observing Covid-19 appropriate behavior,” a senior government official aware of the matter said.

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“Since vaccination is the key to saving lives, the prime minister has also urged eligible people who haven’t yet taken the jab not to just come forward themselves but also bring at least one other eligible beneficiary along for vaccination. It should become a people’s movement,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The states showing spikes in the infections are Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Kerala, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.The country’s caseload, which dropped to under 5% about 10 days back, has nearly doubled, and currently stands at 8.29% of the total positive cases.

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At least 1.1 million people in the country currently have active Sars-CoV-2 infection, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare’s data.

Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala cumulatively account for 70.82% of India’s total active cases. Maharashtra alone accounts for 48.57% of the total caseload in the country.

The country’s Covid-19 recovery rate, which saw an improvement, has also seen a slump in the past few weeks. The recovery rate, which almost touched 98%, currently stands at 90.44%, with 90,584 recoveries having been reported on Saturday. The cumulative recoveries to date stand at 12,081,443, according to the health ministry data.

However, the country has managed to keep the death rate low, currently at 1.27%.

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“Daily deaths continue to show an upward trend. 839 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. Ten States account for 86.41% of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (309). Chhattisgarh follows with 123 daily deaths,” health ministry statement said.

Ten states and Union Territories, however, did not report any Covid-19-related deaths on Saturday. These were Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Mizoram, Manipur, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Arunachal Pradesh. Doctors treating Covid-19 patients attributed fewer deaths to standardised Covid-19 treatment across the country.

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“For a long time in the previous wave, we were actually experimenting with what worked better or what did not work at all for Covid-19 patients. The standardisation of treatment protocol helped as now doctors knew better what worked and that was being used across the country in treating Covid-19 patients with better outcomes,” said Dr GC Khilnani, former head, department of pulmonology and sleep medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi.

“Now that vaccination is also happening, it will also start showing results,” he added.

India has already administered 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses, with 3.5 million doses administered on Saturday, according to government data.

“Cumulatively, 101,595,147 vaccine doses have been administered through 1,517,963 sessions, which include 9,004,063 health care workers who have taken the first dose, and 5,508,289 health care workers with second dose, 9,953,615 frontline workers (first dose), 4,759,209 (second dose), 39,651,630 first dose beneficiaries and 1,800,206 second dose beneficiaries more than 60 years old, and 30,276,653 (first dose) and 641,482 (second dose) beneficiaries aged 45 to 60 years,” said the health ministry statement. Eight states account for 60.27% of the total doses given so far in the country.

In terms of the number of daily doses administered globally, India continues to remain at the top with an average of 3,834,574 doses administered per day, according to the health ministry.