COVID-19: India moves from 10 to 1,000 deaths after 37 days of lockdown

As the lockdown entered the 37th day on April 29, the total number of deaths crossed the 1,000-mark due to the 71 deaths reported over the past 24 hours.

The total number of deaths on March 25 — the day the lockdown started — was 10 and the total number of cases registered was 606. Now, as on April 29, the respective numbers were 1,008 and 31,787.

There was a spike of 1,813 cases since April 28.

The death rate for the country is 3.2 on April 29 as compared to the 1.7 recorded on March 25. (Death rate is the number of deaths per 100 infected persons). The recovery rate in the country is 24.5 per cent. As on April 29, 7,796 people have been cured of the illness.

Maharashtra accounted for the maximum number of deaths — 400. The recovery rate in Maharasthra is 14.9, way below the national recovery rate. The reproduction rate or R0 (also known as R naught or the rate at which one person can spread the infection) is highest in Gujarat at 3.33, West Bengal 2.31, Madhya Pradesh 2.25, and Maharashtra and UP at 2.20.

Kerala (0.40), Haryana (0.74), and Tami Nadu (0.93) have below-zero R0 in the country, which indicates that they have succeeded in curbing the spread of the epidemic.

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The cases were inching towards 10,000 in Maharashtra where the testing is also the highest in the country. The state has tested 1.28 lakh samples in total. Gujarat stood second after Maharashtra in the number of cases (3,774) and 181 deaths.

Cases in Delhi touched 3,314 and the death toll was 54. The death rate in the national capital was among the lowest at 1.6.

In Tamil Nadu, the recovery rate is 56.8 per cent, indicating that more than half of those tested positive had recovered. The testing in Tamil Nadu too had crossed a lakh.

In West Bengal, where the testing numbers have been low at 13,000, the number of cases were 725 with 22 deaths. However, the state had a high R0 of 2.31, indicating a probable higher spread. This warrants higher testing.

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Kerala and Haryana have been doing quite well in managing the epidemic as the death rates are 0.8 and 1 respectively, way below the national rate. Kerala had 486 cases and four deaths. In Kerala, 359 people recovered and in Haryana, 209 patients recovered of the 310 total cases. Haryana had only three deaths.

As per the Ministry of Health figures, the number of active cases is 22,982. As many as 7,796 people recovered. “Thus, around 24.52 per cent of the patients have recovered so far,” a Health Ministry official said.

An official statement said 78 cases were being assigned to states for ‘contact tracing.’

“The states-wise distribution would be subject to further verification,” a health official said.