India has surpassed Brazil to record the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases at 1,35,27,717, as a record 1,68,912 new infections were reported in a day. The active cases have surpassed the 12,00,000 mark, while the death toll increased to 1,70,179 with 904 new fatalities in a day, the highest since October 18, 2020, according to the Union health ministry data.
The national Covid-19 recovery rate has fallen below 90%. According to the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) data, India has overtaken Brazil, which is now at the third spot in the Covid tally with 1,34,82,023 cases. The US has the highest number of cases at 3,11,98,055 while globally 13,61,36,954 cases have been reported.
Registering a steady increase for the 33rd day in a row, the active cases have increased to 12,01,009 in India comprising 8.88% of the total infections, while the recovery rate has further dropped to 89.86%. Before the latest surge, the active caseload was at its highest at 10,17,754 on September 18, 2020 and had decreased to 1, 35,926 on February 12.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,21,56,529, while the case fatality rate has further dropped to 1.26%, the data stated. According to the ICMR, 25,78,06,986 samples have been tested up to April 11 with 11,80,136 samples being tested on Sunday.
Deaths during the week also rose by 70% to 5,079. This too was the sharpest weekly surge in fatalities and the highest toll since the October 12-18 week.
Among states, Maharashtra is leading this ongoing wave with 63,294 cases. This is not only India’s highest but also there are only two other countries (except India) that have reported more cases than Maharashtra. After Maharashtra Uttar Pradesh, along with Delhi and Karnataka are going through an exponential surge in cases. These four states alone accounted for about 100,000 new cases reported in the country.
Data also shows that apart from these states there are five other along with Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan that have each reported over 5,000 cases.
Gujarat records highest active cases
How big is the current Covid surge? It’s big enough to propel Gujarat into the list of top 10 Indian states with highest active cases. The state surpassed Delhi (17,332) to claim the ninth position with 17,348 cases. However, there is a major gap between Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh on No 8 which has 24,155 active cases. In terms of percentage of active cases, however, Gujarat ranks fifth among these 10 states with 5.3%. Maharashtra topped the list with15.2%, followed by Chhattisgarh (13.6%), Punjab (10.1%), and Madhya Pradesh (7.7%).
