COVID-19 in India: Active cases remain below 9 lakh for two days as recovery rate nears 86%; Details

Coronavirus cases in India: For the past few weeks, India has witnessed a sustained decline in the number of new coronavirus cases. This has resulted in a decline in the number of active cases, which now stand at less than 9 lakh, according to an IE report. For the past two days, the active cases have remained below 9 lakh. This is a tremendous improvement from 10.17 lakh active cases in the middle of September. However, about 20% of this decline in active cases could be due to the fact that in this period, nearly 23,000 people have died due to the virus, the report added.

On the other hand, a ray of hope is also emerging as the remaining 80% decline is due to the fall in the number of new cases. A positive trend that has been emerging over the past few weeks is also that the daily new cases are lesser than the daily recoveries.

On Thursday, India saw around 70,000 new cases of coronavirus, while the daily recoveries were over 78,000. While the new cases went up to over 73,000 on Friday, the number still remained below the new recoveries, which surged to 82,753, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The report added that Thursday was the lowest number of new cases that India witnessed since the beginning of September, not counting Monday when only 61,000 cases were reported due to a low testing on Sunday.

A big reason for the decline in new cases on Thursday was the sudden fall witnessed in Kerala. The report stated that on Wednesday, Kerala had seen its biggest daily jump and recorded over 10,000 new cases. This number dropped to nearly half on Thursday, when the state reported less than 5,500 cases. Kerala has the highest growth rate in the country currently, reporting between 7,000 and 9,000 new daily cases for the past two weeks. But Thursday saw Kerala reporting more recoveries than new infections for the first time in around three weeks.

However, this only lasted one day, since on Friday, the state recorded over 9,200 new infections and 8,048 recoveries.

On the other hand, Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari district became the first non-metro and non-tier I city where over one lakh coronavirus cases have been recorded. The district has been the biggest contributor to the state’s COVID-19 tally for a long time, the report added. However, much like the rest of the state, this district is also witnessing a considerable fall in the new cases for the past two weeks, with new cases falling steadily to now stand at 652, the lowest the district has seen since July last week.

Meanwhile, Thane became the fifth city with over two lakh total cases of coronavirus. Of the other four cities, two are in Maharashtra — Pune and Mumbai, while the remaining two are Delhi and Bengaluru.

Currently, India has a total coronavirus tally of over 69 lakh, of which over 59 lakh have recovered. This has brought the recovery rate in India to 85.81% as on Saturday morning. The coronavirus deaths stand at 1.07 lakh.