India logged a 79% increase in Covid-19 cases in the week ending Sunday with a tally of over 36,000, the highest weekly count in nearly seven months, as infections began spreading in states where cases were relatively few till the previous week.
Covid deaths continued to be low although the toll was inching up. India recorded 68 fatalities during the week (April 3 to 9), up from 41 in previous week. For the second straight week, Kerala logged by far the highest number of new cases at 11,296, a 2. 4x increase over the previous week, followed by Maharashtra (4,587, up 32%), Delhi (3,896, up 94%), Haryana (2,140, up 147%) and Gujarat (2,039, down 15%).
Numbers rose sharply in states/ UTs where cases had been relatively low so far. These include Rajasthan, where numbers during the week shot up to 631, rising over three-fold from 194 in preceding period, Chhattisgarh (from 113 to 462), Odisha (193 to 597) and J&K (129 to 413), among others. There were signs of a spike in states like Uttarakhand, which reported a rise in daily cases. India recorded 36,250 fresh cases during the week, up from 20,293 in the previous seven days.
This was the eighth week in a row of rising Covid cases. The weekly tally was the highest since the September 12-18 week last year, nearly seven months ago. Meanwhile, Gujarat became the first major state to report a drop in cases during the week. Earlier, Telangana had logged a decrease but the surge in the state had been modest, with recorded daily cases remaining well below 100, and the state has again reported a slight rise. Growth in cases appears to be slowing down in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Of the 68 deaths reported during the week, Maharashtra accounted for 15, Delhi 10, Himachal Pradesh eight, Gujarat six and Karnataka five. The test positivity rate during the week rose to nearly 4%, up from 2. 5% in the earlier week. Despite the number of tests increasing to 960,000 from 825,000 in the previous week, indicating a steady rise in infections in the country.