India’s COVID-19 growth rate explained: Case doubling time improves to 30 days

Coronavirus cases in India: As the growth rate on a daily basis slows down, the impact can be seen on the overall growth rate of the novel Coronavirus cases in India. According to a report by The Indian Express, the doubling time of COVID-19 cases in the country has improved to 30 days currently from 10 days in the first week of May, suggesting a slowdown in growth. So far, around 29.05 lakh cases have been reported for the viral infection and the cases doubled in the last 30 days. The report highlighted that the halfway stage was last crossed on July 27.

The report said that this function of growth rate (doubling time) is used to assess the pace at which the infection is spreading among people. After the Coronavirus outbreak, earlier this year, India had a doubling time of 10 days in April and May. It has been more than two months since May that a steady elongation of doubling time has been recorded, according to the report.

When multiple states in India are being looked at separately, each state has a different growth rate and the doubling time also varies. The national capital currently has a doubling time of around 100 days due to the growth rate being less than one per cent. States including Punjab, Odisha, Kerala, and Jharkhand having higher caseloads are recording a doubling time of less than 20 days.

In Maharashtra, the state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases, there has been a slight jump. For the first time, more than 14,600 cases were reported in a single day, taking the total number of cases in state to 6.43 lakh. Out of this, 72 per cent infected people have recovered. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh, which was growing at the rate of 9 per cent on an average in a day not too long ago, has come down to 3-4 per cent.