India recorded a big dip in Covid-19 numbers in the last week, with both fresh cases and deaths registering their sharpest weekly decreases in percentage terms at least the last four months. For the first time since early June, India is likely to record less than 50,000 new cases in the week (August 29-September 4), as the surge in infections seen from June till late July continues to subside for the sixth week running. The tally of cases this week is likely to be close to 46,400, a 30% drop from the previous week’s total of 66,400. Such a sharp dip in weekly numbers was last recorded during the receding phase of the third wave in February and March this year. Deaths from the virus too are likely to see a 23%-25% drop from last week's toll of 277, the sharpest decrease since mid-May.
Active cases of the virus had fallen to around 51,000 dropping from nearly 69,000. All states and UTs logged a decline in fresh cases as compared to the previous week, with the exception of Kerala. This would be the second straight week of rising cases in Kerala, which had reported 7,863 fresh infections last week. Maharashtra, which had recorded the highest number of infections in the country in the previous week, reported a sharp decline of 31%, with the case count dropping from 12,101 to 8,370. In Delhi, where the weekly count of cases dropped by 59%, from 4,821 to 1,997. Kerala also reported the highest number of Covid deaths. Maharashtra reported 35 deaths, one more than the previous week, while Delhi logged 19, down from 38 last week. These figures do not include deaths from earlier periods added to the tally in data reconciliation exercises.
