India’s daily Covid-19 case tally drops below 100,000
Just 18 days ago, there were more than four times as many cases – on January 20, there were 347,487 new infections of Covid-19 detected across India.
For the first time in more than a month, the daily cases of Covid-19 across India have fallen below the 100,000 mark, highlighting how the third national wave of the infectious disease is contracting nearly as fast as it soared.
On Monday, there were 66,156new Covid-19 cases detected across India, as per HT’s dashboard. A day earlier, the daily cases fell below 100,000 at 85,045 for the first time since January 5, or 32 days ago. For context on how much this number has dropped, just 18 days ago, there were more than four times as many cases – on January 20, there were 347,487 new infections of Covid-19 detected across India.
The total cases recorded in the country so far was 42,336,981on Monday, with 504,124fatalities.
The seven-day average of daily cases has dropped to 138,472 for the week ended Sunday. This number is generally used to denote a region’s case curve as it evens out any probable drop in testing or hospital visits due during the weekends. This number has now dropped 56% from the peak level of 312,180 cases a day (on average) seen for the week ended January 25. In simpler terms, in less than two weeks since it touched a peak, the Indian case curve has already shrunk to more than half its volume.
The last time India’s case curve was at this level was for the week ended January 10, or 27 days ago, HT’s data shows.
“India is moving forward with great strength and vigour in its fight against Covid-19. With PM Narendra Modi’s mantra of ‘sabka prayas’, we will win the battle against the pandemic,” Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted on Monday as he said that the total vaccinations in the country had crossed the 1.7 billion mark.
In Delhi, the number of cases recorded on Monday was 1,151, with a test positivity rate of 2.62%. Mumbai, meanwhile, reported 356 new cases – the lowest daily rise after December 21 last year.
Like all averages, the national figure hides a large variation in drop in infections across the country. However, a key factor to note is that contraction is now visible in every state in the country from peak levels seen in the past two months.
The biggest contraction has been recorded in Tripura, where the seven-day average of daily cases has dropped 93% from a peak of 1,087 cases a day for the week ended January 22. In West Bengal, cases have dropped 92% from 21,715 cases a day for the week ended January 15. Delhi is on the third spot with a 90% drop in cases from a January 15 peak of 23,529. Bihar and Jharkhand have similarly seen contractions of 90% and 87% respectively, data shows.
At the other end of the spectrum, Mizoram, with a 4% contraction from its peak, has seen cases shrink the least in the country. It is followed by Kerala, where cases have dropped 19% from peak third wave levels, and Ladakh that has seen a 21% contraction. Madhya Pradesh (cases down 35% from peak), and Nagaland (38%) wrap up the five states/UTs with the smallest drop in cases.
“The third wave is clearing ebbing; in fact, India attained the peak some two weeks back, and after that, the number of daily new cases has been going down, and it has fallen below 100,000... It is safe to say that the disease transmission has reduced nationally,” said IIT-Hyderabad’s M Vidyasagar, who is the chairman of the Covid-19 Supermodel Committee, which is tasked with creating a model to include best predictive analytics for forecasting of Covid-19 spread.
Experts said the third wave, which has been driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, had fewer hospitalisations but that should not stop people from completing their vaccine doses, as they played a role in battling the surge.
“Low incidence of severe disease with Omicron should not make us complacent for receiving the vaccine (third dose for the vulnerable), which gives protection from infection and more so from severe disease. We all know that there is always a threat of ‘new variants’ and it is expected that being fully vaccinated would protect us from them, too,” said Dr GC Khilnani, former head, pulmonary medicine department, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi.