India reported over 22,200 fresh Covid-19 cases during the week (April 25-May 1), up more than 41% from the previous week's tally of nearly 15,800. Last week, cases had seen a 96% surge over the preceding seven days. Delhi, Haryana and UP accounted for 68% of all new cases in the week.
Deaths from the virus were not rising in tandem with the increase in cases. While data from a few states was awaited, the week's Covid toll is expected to be around 30. Last week, 29 new deaths were reported while the toll was 27 in the preceding seven days. These figures do not include fatalities from earlier months that were added to the tally during this period.
However, during the week, fresh cases registered a rise in 20 states/Union territories, indicating that infections were continuing to spread in the country. On the positive side, the numbers were still relatively low and most of the states reporting a rise in infections continued to clock less than 1,000 new cases per week.
Delhi continued to lead other states in the number of cases reported. The capital logged 9,684 fresh cases during the week, an 53% rise from the previous week’s count of 6,326. While Delhi accounted for 43% of all new cases detected in the country during the period, data suggests the spike in the capital was slowing down. In the previous week, cases had spiked by 174%. The National Capital Region remained the epicentre of fresh Covid cases. Weekly cases were on the rise in both Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, where most NCR cities are situated.
Haryana clocked 3,695 new cases, up 61% from 2,296 in the previous week while UP’s tally was 1,736, a rise of 36% from 1,278 in the preceding seven days. Kerala continued to report more than 2,000 cases in the week but the rise in infections was clearly slowing down.
