30 days, 3x hike in cases and deaths: India’s Unlock-1 report card

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths-linked to the highly contagious infection have increased more than three times in the month of June.

On June 1, India recorded 1.9 lakh cases and 5,394 deaths, while the numbers have increased to 5.6 lakh cases and 16,893 deaths in just 30 days.

The process of phased re-opening — Unlock-1 — of economic and social activities from the coronavirus-enforced lockdown began on June 1 when the central government relaxed some of the restrictions to restart the economy.

At the same time, a sudden surge was observed in the number of cases across the country. Amid the health crisis, the number of recovered cases being reported over a lakh more than the active cases has been the only positive sign.

Trajectory of cases and deaths

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A huge surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases was observed after businesses were allowed to open and the movement of people across the states increased.

In June, many migrant destination states saw a sudden surge in the number of cases, including the northeastern states, which saw a spike in the number of cases this month.

Related news: COVID-19 tally up from 1 to 5 lakh in 39 days; recoveries exceed active cases

As on June 1, the country had 1.90 cases of COVID-19 which surged past five lakh by the end of the month.

Currently, India stands at the fourth spot after the USA (25.90 lakh), Brazil (13.68 lakh), and Russia (6.40 lakh) in the list of worst-affected countries with 5.66 lakh cases in total.

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The government has said that the low number of deaths is one thing to be seen as a success in India’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The country had a death rate below 3 per cent up to June 16, while it saw a sudden spike of a half per cent on the very next day.

This was a result of the revision of the number of coronavirus-related deaths in the country. On June 17, the government added 2,003 new deaths. Currently, the death rate stands at 3 per cent.

Of the total 16,893 COVID-19 deaths, 70 per cent deaths (11,499 deaths) were reported only in the past 30 days.

Recovery of COVID-19 patients

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As on date, around 3.34 lakh patients have recovered from the COVID-19 in the country. Out of the total recoveries, 2.43 lakh (approximately 70 per cent) have recovered in the last 30 days.

Since the second week of April, the country has seen a constant increase in the recovery rate. It stood at 48.2 per cent on June 1 while it has reached 59.1 per cent by the end of the month.

The testing game

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India has conducted an average of 1.5 lakh tests each day in the past month. The total tests conducted in India stands at 86.08 lakh, as on date. More than half of these tests were conducted in June itself.

The country has 1,049 operational labs to test samples for the COVID-19 across all the states. Out of the total labs, 781 labs are government-owned, while the other 288 labs are privately owned.

Where the states stand

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While Maharashtra remains the worst-affected state in the country with 1.69 lakh cases, Tamil Nadu has come to the second spot by the end of the month. It has reported 86,224 cases, followed by Delhi (85,161 cases), Gujarat (31,938 cases) and Uttar Pradesh (22,828 cases).

Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu had resorted to the further extension of the lockdown till July 31, while Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat are yet to take a call.

In terms of death rate, Gujarat is the worst-hit state with a death rate of 5.7 per cent while Tamil Nadu has fared well with only 1.3 per cent death rate.

Related news: 8 states contributed 85% COVID-19 caseload, 87% deaths: Health Ministry