Odisha, Jharkhand now fastest-growing states on the COVID table

Odisha and Jharkhand, two of the migrant home-states, have reported the highest growth rate in COVID-19 cases over the last 10 days with a growth rate above the national rate.

The growth rate of cases is calculated in percentage increase in number of cases compared to the existing number of infections.

Odisha recorded a growth rate of 2.73 per cent and Jharkhand’s was 5.09 per cent as compared to national growth rate which stood at 2.10 per cent as on September 9.

The growth rate of the worst-hit state Maharashtra was 2.18 on the same day, followed by Andhra Pradesh (2.09 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (1.21 per cent).

Odisha has so far reported 1.31 lakh cases with an average of 3,388 cases being found daily for the last 10 days. Jharkhand has been reporting 1,873 cases daily on an average; in total it has 55,296 cases as of Wednesday.

Both the states added almost two-third of the cases in August alone.

Odisha reported its first case on March 16 and had just 7,316 cases till July 1. In a month, it increased to 33,479 (August 1). The rest 73,082 cases (or 68.58 per cent of the total cases) were reported during the next one month.

Jharkhand, on the other hand, had reported its first case on March 31. In the next four months, it added 12,103 cases to its tally. The rest of 31,729 cases (or 72.39 per cent) were added in August.

In terms of recoveries, both states have recorded more number of fresh cases than discharged cases over the last 10 days. Odisha reported 30,448 new cases as opposed to 28,009 recoveries while Jharkhand recorded just 13,516 recoveries compared to 16,861 new cases during this period.

This difference is a clear sign of the worsening of the crisis and also suggests that it will take a lot more time to return to normalcy.

The death rate of both states had been below one per cent throughout the pandemic. Currently, it is 0.48 per cent for Odisha and 0.90 per cent for Jharkhand.

Though the test positivity rate (TPR) of both the states is lower than that of India as on September 9, it is still a sign of worry.

Jharkhand conducted 12.69 lakh tests while Odisha conducted 22.26 lakh tests since the beginning of the pandemic. Their TPR is 8.71 per cent and 11.80 per cent, respectively, while that of India is currently 17.23 per cent.

The states will have to decrease the gap between recoveries and new cases in order to control the infection.

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