India reported close to 2 million Covid-19 cases in August, the highest recorded in any country during any month since the outbreak of the pandemic. The country also saw a surge in deaths from the virus, with 28,859 fatalities reported in August, a 50% jump from the previous month’s toll. The 19,87,705 cases recorded during August in India, as per data collated from state governments, made it the worst outbreak of the virus in any country during a single month .
India’s Covid tally crosses 36,00,000 mark
With 78,512 new cases of Covid-19, India’s case tally has gone past the 36,00,000 mark, according to the Union health ministry on Monday. With 971 new deaths, the cumulative toll reached 65,288. The coronavirus cases in the country mounted to 36,91,166 including 7,81,975 active cases, 27,74,802 cured/discharged/migrated cases.
In Maharashtra, 11,852 new cases, 11,158 discharges and 184 Covid-19 deaths were reported on Monday. The total number of cases till date in the state is 7,92,541, There are 1,94,056 active cases in the state, while 5,73,559 Covid-19 patients were discharged after full recovery until Monday. The death toll is at 24,583, according to Maharashtra's health department.
Tamil Nadu reported 5,956 new Covid-19 cases, 6,008 discharges and 91deaths in the last 24 hours, taking total cases to 4,28,041 including 3,68,141 discharges and 7,322 deaths, according to the state's Health Department. Delhi reported 1,358 new cases,1,507 recoveries and 18 deaths. The total number of cases now is 1,74,748 including 14,626 active cases, 1,55,678 recovered/discharged/migrated cases and 4,444 deaths in the national capital.
In Karnataka, 6,495 new cases, 7,238 discharged cases and 113 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, taking total cases to 3,42,423 including 2,49,467 discharges and 5,702 deaths, according to the state's Health Department. Punjab recorded 1,541 new coronavirus cases, 1,280 recoveries and 50 deaths, taking active cases to 15,512, recoveries to 37,027 and death toll to 1,453, as per Punjab's health department.
India added a record 80,092 fresh Covid cases on Sunday, becoming the first country in the world to cross the 80,000-mark in one single day since the outbreak of the pandemic, even as the week ending August 30 turned out to be the worst week of the month. The growth rate in both fresh cases and fatalities in this week not only increased after a dip, but more than doubled compared to the preceding week.
The highest peak of 80,000-plus cases comes on a Sunday when the number of fresh infections have been lower than other days of the week because of a lull in testing during the weekends. The highest peak of fresh cases on a Sunday was last recorded on August 9 with 63,851 fresh cases.
However, more alarming than the new peak in fresh infections is the growth rate of both fresh cases and fatalities shooting up in the last week of August after a dip which was seen in the earlier weeks of the month. With more than 76,000 fresh cases being registered daily for five consecutive days, the growth rate this week at 13.1% was almost three times the 4.7% growth registered the previous week. This was 5.9% in the preceding week and 10.9% in the first week of the month (Aug 3-9).
Similarly, with 1,000-plus fresh deaths recorded for four consecutive days, the growth rate in fatalities this week, at 3.9%, was more than double of 1.7% recorded in the previous week.
