COVID-19: Low COVID count, deaths show declining virus threat across India

A total of 5.54 lakh new COVID positive cases have been reported since the start of 2021. This count is much less than what used to be back in August last year when the pandemic was at its peak. India reported 11,713 new cases and 14,488 recoveries on Saturday (February 6).

The overall number of cases in India stands at 1.08 crore as of Saturday (February 6). The country reported a spike of about 81,173 cases last week (January 31 to February 6) while more than one lakh recoveries were reported during the same time. The current count of recovered patients stands at 1.05 crore. On the other hand, 771 deaths were reported last week. The total number of deaths in India due to coronavirus infection is 1.54 lakh as of February 6.

It is evident that the country is reporting far less cases every day as against recoveries. This suggests a further decline in the spread of the virus across the country. All the seven days of the week (January 31 to February 6) reported a higher number of recoveries than new cases. The two parameters had a difference of 20,463 cases during the said period.

The daily average of cases stood at 11,596 cases while that of recoveries was 14,519. The maximum difference between the two was reported on Thursday (4,925 cases) while the lowest difference was reported on Monday (431 cases).

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The death rate of COVID 19 cases in India dropped once again. Currently, it stands at 1.43 percent. The death rate is the number of people who died out of every hundred positive cases. The rate was 1.44 percent between January 11 and February 1 when it dropped by 0.01 percent. Lower death rate suggests the country is fighting the virus strongly.

The absolute number of deaths in India is also declining with every passing week. In the first week of January, the country reported 1,598 deaths against 771 deaths in the first week of February. This shows a sharp decline in casualties. Less than hundred cases were reported on Tuesday (February 2) and Saturday (February 6). It was for the first time since May 12 that the country reported less than a hundred deaths in a day (February 2).

The declining test positivity rate (TPR) in India is also suggestive of decreasing spread of the virus across the nation. The TPR is the number of positive patients per hundred tested. The TPR for Saturday was 1.58 percent.

During the last full week (January 31-February 6), the TPR has remained below 2 percent except for Monday when it was 2.27 percent. The lowest TPR was reported on the very next day at 1.31 percent. The country has conducted 7.40 lakh tests on Saturday while during the last week about 48.35 Lakh persons were tested.

Since India began its vaccination drive on January 16, India has vaccinated about 54.16 lakh people. An average of 2.60 lakh people are getting the jab every single day for the last three weeks. However, 22 people have died after vaccination, but there is no evidence to prove that vaccine caused their death, says the Ministry of Health.