India’s Covid-19 caseload breaches 15 lakh-mark

While India’s total tally for covid-19 cases breached 15 lakh mark on Tuesday, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi remained worst hit despite some decline in fresh coronavirus cases in these states.
Maharashtra that has so far recorded 3,83,723 covid-19 cases, Tamil Nadu 2,20,716 cases and Delhi has recorded 1,32,275 cases. At the same time, all the three states have so far conducted one of the highest covid-19 tests in the country cumulatively.

As per the government data, the highest number of covid-19 tests have been conducted by Tamil Nadu (23, 85, 766), followed by Maharashtra (19, 12, 134), Uttar Pradesh (15, 76377), Rajasthan (12, 87, 712), Karnataka (12,64, 999) and Delhi (992193). Government officials have said that Delhi testing is also one of the highest considering its smaller population than Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Nationally, the cumulative testing as on date has crossed 1.73 crore. The Tests Per Million has further improved to 12,562.

In June Maharashtra launched “chase the virus” campaign where the emphasis is on testing, tracing and isolation, officials said, which has helped in bringing down the cases in Mumbai. The overall growth rate of coronavirus cases in Mumbai from July 20 to July 26 was 1.03%. “The good news: Only 700 cases today in Mumbai & that too with highest testing till date in Mumbai in a single day (8776),” tweeted Aditya Thackeray, Cabinet Minister of Tourism and Environment Government of Maharashtra, on Tuesday. Mumbai has a total of 1,10,182 cases of which only 21,812 are active.

Over the last two weeks Delhi has also seen a decline in covid-19 cases. From being the state with the second highest number of active cases, Delhi has now reached the 10th position. On 23 June, Delhi saw its highest single day tally with over 4000 cases being reported, which put the health infrastructure under pressure. Since then Delhi government along with the union government ramped up efforts to increase testing from 5000 per day to approximately 20,000 a day along with increasing the number of containment zones to control the spread.

“Delhi and Mumbai have been able to contain the spread because of testing, treatment, tracking, isolation and team work. Our sero-surveillance data from Delhi needs to be examined in depth and such surveys may be undertaken in other parts of the country,” said Dr Suneela Garg, Director at Community Medicine Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi University.

“Along with increase in testing we need to strengthen our containment strategies focusing upon social distancing, masks and sanitization. As the pandemic is becoming mature we cannot become lax with our containment strategies in terms of hand hygiene, respiratory etiquettes and be aware of the early warning symptoms,” she said.

India’s Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is progressively falling and currently, it is 2.25%. The CFR has reduced from around 3.33% in mid-June to 2.25% as on Tuesday. The Recovery Rate has seen a sharp increase from around 53% in mid-June to more than 64% as on today. With 35,176 patients discharged in the last 24 hours, the total recoveries stand at 9,52,743. The actual active case load is presently 4,96,988 and all are under medical supervision, according to the union health ministry.

“While the mortality due to covid-19 is approximately 2 to 3% and most cases are largely asymptomatic, it is important to create awareness about the higher risk of both morbidity and mortality faced by people with co-morbidities like diabetes, obesity and fatty liver, chronic liver diseases. The Ayushman Bharat – Health and Wellness Centres are tirelessly working for screening of such conditions,” said Harsh Vardhan, union health minister. – Livemint