India sees decline in active cases in 23 states but Kerala biggest hotspot

New Delhi: India surpassed Brazil and became the second country to have the highest number of COVID-19 patients. But recently the numbers of active coronavirus cases in the last two weeks declines. The 23 states and union territories witnessed fewer new active cases, only 13% of all cases remain under treatment now. However, there is one exception that is Kerala. The cases are increasing continuously. Since the last two weeks the cases have risen more than two-fold to 92,246. This is a tenth of the total count in India. Only Maharashtra and Karnataka have more, but the spread is much slower.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected as it reported 14,578 fresh cases, taking the total tally to 14, 80,489. With 355 new deaths, the death toll now stands at 39,072.

Kerala witnessed the worst spikes, 8 of the 10 districts faced the increase in spread of virus. The case-load jumped over 20% in all 14 districts of the state in this period. Testing in the state is the highest per million populations, with around 8 lakh samples tested in the last two weeks. Karnataka, which was the biggest hotspot in July has risen to 11% in the last seven days, the second worst growth rate after Kerala. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka’s tolls are very close to 10,000 each

The outbreak in Chhattisgarh has slowed down, but deaths are rising fast (24% weekly growth). Typically, a decline in new cases reflects a slowdown in deaths only after a few weeks as per the National and state-wise data from the Union health ministry. Chhattisgarh became the 15th state to cross 1,000 deaths this week.  Andhra Pradesh (6,086 deaths) now has the fifth highest toll after surpassing Delhi (5,616). The pace of increase in deaths has improved across most states.

This week, India had 105,526 covid-related deaths as of Thursday morning, an 8% weekly jump. Among the states with at least 500 deaths, Chhattisgarh (24%), Kerala (24%), and Assam (15%) observed the biggest rise in their toll.

India’s total count of coronavirus patients has risen to 6,835,655 as of Thursday morning. The country accounted for 26% of the 4.3 million cases reported globally over the last two weeks, the highest in the world. After rising steadily, India’s share in the global death count has reached 10%. In just the last 14 days, the country accounted for 18% of nearly 80,000 deaths, also the highest share.