With a record single-day jump of 49,931Covid-19 cases, India's caseload climbed to 14,35,453 on Monday, while recoveries surged to 9,17,567, according to Union health ministry data. The country's death toll rose to 32,771 with 708 fatalities being recorded in a day, the data showed.
There are 4,85,114 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country, while 9,17,567 patients have recovered and one person has migrated. The recovery rate stands at 63.92 per cent, according to the data. The total number of confirmed cases also includes foreigners. This is the fifth consecutive day when Covid cases have increased by more than 45,000.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 1,68,06,803 samples had been tested up to July 26. As many as 5,15,472 samples, the highest in a single day, were tested on Sunday.
Of the 708 deaths reported, 267 are from Maharashtra, 85 from Tamil Nadu, 82 from Karnataka, 56 from Andhra Pradesh, 40 from West Bengal, 39 from Uttar Pradesh, 26 from Gujarat, 21from Delhi, 15 from Punjab, and 10 each from Bihar and Odisha. Twelve fatalities have been reported from Madhya Pradesh, eight each from Rajasthan and Telangana, seven from Jammu and Kashmir, four from Chhattisgarh, three each from Haryana and Jharkhand, two each from Assam, Tripura, Goa, Puducherry and Kerala, and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh.
Surat surpasses Ahmedabad in new cases
Surat city in overtook Ahmedabad as the biggest contributor of Covid-19 cases in Gujarat in the past 30 days. Compared to 5,166 cases in Ahmedabad from June 28 to July 27, Surat added 5,963 cases. Ahmedabad’s daily cases average was 172 compared to Surat’s 199. The two cities together account for 42.6% of the cases recorded in Gujarat.
However, Ahmedabad saw more deaths than the Diamond City, with 164 deaths in past 30 days, slightly higher than Surat’s 157. The two cities accounted for 57.5% of Gujarat’s deaths in this period. While Ahmedabad’s share was 29%, Surat’s was 28%, analysis of the figures revealed.
Ahmedabad’s death rate for the past 30 days was 3.2%, compared to Surat’s 2.6%. The cumulative death rate for the eight biggest cities in the state was 2.5%, compared to1.7% for the rest of the state.
On July 26, for the first time, the share of the eight municipal corporations in Gujarat – Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Junagadh and Gandhinagar – went below 50% of the daily cases, at 48%. The share of these cities has seen a constant decline from 80% on June 23 to 48% on July 26. Experts attribute the steady increase of Covid-19 cases in rural areas of the districts to multiple factors.
Compared to Covid cases, deaths were found to be concentrated in cities – in the past 30 days, Gujarat recorded 558 Covid deaths of which 374 were from the eight cities, a 67:33 ratio. Thus, two of every three deaths of Covid patients took place in city hospitals or homes, state health department figures revealed. “After Ahmedabad, Surat has emerged as a Covid-19 hotspot in terms of cases and deaths. Stringent measures are required to ensure that the spread doesn’t become uncontrollable in areas outside cities, where the health infrastructure is not very strong,” said a city-based epidemiologist.
