COVID alert: Every day recoveries just half of fresh caseload

India reported its biggest-ever weekly spike in the number of COVID-19 cases during the last seven days (April 4 to April 10) with the second wave sweeping across the country. The death tally too is spiking with increasing cases. However, more than half of the cases are being reported from only one state i.e. Maharashtra while the rest of the country has scattered cases.

India reported more than 1.45 lakh new cases of coronavirus on Saturday (April 10), taking its overall tally to 1.32 crore since the beginning of the pandemic. This is the highest single-day spike in cases ever reported by any country during the pandemic so far.

India observed its biggest weekly spike during the last week (April 4 to 10). During the last week, a total of 8.13 lakh new cases were reported compared to 4.83 lakh cases in the week prior to that. This boils down to an average of more than a lakh cases every single day. The number crossed one lakh for the first time on Monday, April 5. Thus, the second wave is clearly more infectious and spikes are steeper this time, suggests data.

An alarming trend was observed when comparing new cases against recoveries. The country reported 4.21 lakh recoveries against 8.13 lakh new cases. The increasing gap between fresh cases and recoveries suggests the increasing spread of the virus in the region. The gap between the two was about four lakh cases in the last week while it was about two lakh in the week prior to that. Most cases were reported on Saturday (1,45,384 cases) while the maximum recoveries too were reported on the same day (77,567 recoveries).

While the number of cases is on the rise, the number of deaths too has been increasing sharply over the last two weeks. A total of 4,362 people succumbed in the last week. The number was 2,870 in the previous week.

Also read: Check what curbs have been imposed in view of rising COVID cases

India’s current death rate is 1.28 percent, which means that about 128 people died out of every 10,000 infected individuals. Though the death rate in the country has declined over the past few months, the sudden spike in cases has nullified the drop as the absolute number of deaths is seeing a sudden surge. The country has reported about 34 percent increase in actual deaths during the last week.

The surging test positivity rate in India is one of the important red flags when looked at different parameters to gauge the spread of the virus in the country. TPR is the number of positive patients per hundred tested.

The TPR that was below three percent at the beginning of March has reached double-digit value during the first week of April, shows the data. The TPR of the country had constantly remained above 8 percent during the last week. On Saturday, the country reported the highest TPR of about 12.4 percent.

As of April 10, India completed vaccination of more than 9.80 crore people, according to the data provided by the health ministry. An average of more than one lakh people are being inoculated every day since the beginning of the vaccination drive on January 16. Currently, the vaccine is being administered to people above 45 years of age along with the frontline workers.