COVID-19: Uptick in recoveries, fall in cases, deaths bring hopes
The third week of January has shown a declining trend in the spread of COVID-19 in the country, with parametres like active cases, recoveries, death rate, and test positivity rate showing signs of improvement.
The beginning of the COVID-19 vaccination drive has also increased the confidence of people.
The overall number of cases in India stands at 1.06 crore as of Saturday (January 23). The country saw an increase of just 3.79 lakh cases in January compared to 8.28 lakh cases in December. This suggests a sharp decline in cases over the last few weeks. The number of recoveries has also crossed the one crore-mark with 1.03 crore recoveries as of Saturday. The recovery rate stands at 96.82 per cent for the same period. On the other hand, India has reported 1.53 lakh deaths due to coronavirus.
The country reported 14,256 cases of coronavirus on Saturday while the number of recoveries was 17,130 for the day. Even the number of active cases is on a sharp decline for many weeks. Currently, India has 1.85 lakh active cases of the virus.
Related news: India’s vaccine hesitancy falls by 7% amid inoculation drive: Survey
During the last week (January 17 to 23) the country reported less than one lakh cases while the recoveries were much more than those. A total of 1.21 lakh recoveries were reported against 96,843 new cases of the virus. All the seven days of the week reported more recoveries than the new cases. The maximum difference between the two was reported on Tuesday which was more than 7,000 cases while the least difference of 669 cases was reported a day before.
The lower death rate is one of the key parameters that suggest the positive change in the pandemic situation in India as of Sunday. The death rate has constantly remained at 1.44 per cent for the last week. The death rate is the number of deaths per hundred of the COVID-19 patients. Lower is the death rate, better is the battle against the virus. The death rate hasn’t changed since January 11.
When looked at the absolute number of deaths in the country, one can also see a developing scenario as the daily number of deaths is also declining following the trend of decline in the number of fresh cases. During the last week, India reported 1,091 deaths across the states with an average of about 150 deaths a day. The number of deaths in the last week of December was twice the same showing a sharp drop in the number of fatalities due to coronavirus.
The test positivity rate or TPR of the country has also shown satisfactory development over the past few weeks. The TPR is the number of positive patients per hundred tested. Higher is the TPR, more severe the spread of the virus. The current TPR in the country is 1.70 per cent as of Saturday.
Related news: COVID-19 vaccination drive: India crosses one million-markÂ
The TPR has remained below 2 per cent all through the week. It crossed the mark of two per cent only on Monday (January 18) when the value was 2.52 per cent. The lowest TPR in the week (1.42 per cent) was reported the very next day. More than 52 lakh tests were conducted in the last week across the country.
