Falling number of cases shows country gaining hold over COVID

The Diwali festival rush across the country and farmers’ 10 days of protest in Delhi so far have not really had the feared impact on COVID-19 cases.

After a slight jump in the last week of November (November 22 to November 29), the country’s weekly statistics have again shown a downward trend in the number of coronavirus cases. The most heartening news is that more people have recovered than fallen ill (94% recovery rate). This phenomenon has continued for over six weeks except for the previous week (November 22 to 29). This metric of difference between the fresh cases and recoveries suggests a declining trend in the further spread of the virus.

India had 96.08 lakh cases of coronavirus as on December 5, 2020. The active number of cases dropped to 4.09 lakh, which is about 4.6 per cent of the total caseload. The number of recoveries has already crossed the 90 lakh mark (90.58 lakh recoveries) as on December 5, 2020. The death toll has reached 1.39 lakh during the same time.

The number of recoveries increased in the last week (November 29 to December 5) as compared to the previous one. The current week reported 2.98 lakh recoveries compared with 2.81 lakh recoveries in the previous week. The recoveries were even more in the two  prior weeks.

Also read: India’s lowest COVID deaths in three months: Health Ministry data

The country added 2.57 lakh fresh cases in the week just ended compared with the 3 lakh new cases in the previous week. The active cases, too, dropped from 4.54 lakh to 4.09 lakh cases.

The last one week (November 29 to December 5) saw a small surge in the number of fatalities compared with the prior weeks. There were 3,500 fatalities across the states in the week, while the week before had reported 3,474 fatalities. The average weekly deaths were 500, an increase of four from the the previous week. Overall, the death toll has crossed the 1.39 lakh mark.

The declining death rate is the most positive side of India’s battle against the novel coronavirus. In fact, the death rate dropped by another 0.01 per cent in the week ending Saturday (December 5, 2020). The current death rate stands at 1.45 per cent, which was maintained throughout the week across the country. The figure was 1.46 per cent and 1.47 per cent in the previous two weeks, respectively.

The drop in test positivity rate (TPR) of the country, too, signals a further decline in the spread of the virus. TPR is the number of persons testing positive out of every hundred tested.

Also read: India’s COVID-19 situation improves, but it still has a long way to go

The daily TPR in the last week remained below 4.5 per cent throughout. The highest daily TPR in the week was 4.35 per cent on Monday (November 30), while the lowest was 3.13 per cent reported on Friday (December 4).