India coronavirus numbers explained: 50,000-figure breached, recoveries cross one million

India Coronavirus Cases: Andhra Pradesh detected more than 10,000 new cases of novel Coronavirus infections on Wednesday, and it was the first time since mid-March that any state had reported more cases than Maharashtra on any day. Maharashtra found 9,211 new cases on Wednesday, and the number of people who have been infected in the state so far went past 4 lakh.

It was also only the second time that any state had reported more than 10,000 positive cases in a single day. On July 22, Maharashtra had detected over 10,500 new cases.

 Daily Covid-19 cases in India in July. The number of new cases crossed the 50,000-mark for the first time on Wednesday, July 29, 2020.

Ever since the first infections in Maharashtra were detected in the second week of March, the state has been contributing the highest number of positive cases in the country. Even in the initial days, there were only a couple of occasions when other states –the outbreak was confined to Kerala, Delhi, Telangana and Rajasthan at that time – had reported more cases than Maharashtra, but those days daily new discoveries were still in single digits.

As it raced ahead, Maharashtra’s contribution to the national tally was far greater than others. At its peak, during the month of May, more than 40 per cent of all cases detected in India every day were coming from Maharashtra. The state also accounted for more than 35 per cent of the country’s total caseload in those days.

These contributions have progressively come down now. These days, less than 20 per cent of all cases detected in the country every day are in Maharashtra. And the state’s share of the total national caseload has fallen to just about 25 per cent (four lakh in national tally of 15.85 lakh).

Even then, Maharashtra’s position had remained unchallenged as far as absolute numbers of daily new cases was concerned. Andhra Pradesh is the first state to have gone past Maharashtra’s daily tally.

Andhra Pradesh has seen a phenomenal growth in its cases in this month. Its total cases have risen from less than 15,000 at the end of June to more than 1.2 lakh now, an increase of almost 725 per cent. Usually, states with large caseloads don’t have long durations of high growth. Their growth tends to fall off after a few days. That is because, states would have to discover higher number of positive cases every day to sustain that growth. States like Telangana, Tamil Nadu or Karnataka, which showed a surge in this month, slowed down or stabilised after a few days or weeks. Even if, in absolute numbers, they continued to detect similar number of cases every day, the growth, in percentage, has fallen off.

Andhra Pradesh, however, has defied that trend and sustained a very high growth for a long time now. In July, its cases have grown at an average of 7.55 per cent per day. The only comparable state has been Karnataka, which has grown by 7.14 per cent per day during this time. Karnataka’s caseload has increased from 15,242 to 112,504 during this month, an increase of 638 per cent. But Karnataka’s growth seems to tapering off now, at least in comparison to Andhra Pradesh.

INDIAN EXPRESS