From Our Bureau
1st SEPTEMBER 2020
India witnessed a big surge with 69,921 fresh COVID-19 positive cases reported on Tuesday, taking the country’s cumulative tally to 36,91,166. The death toll rose to 65,288, with 819 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours. India has moved to third place in total number of fatalities as also positive cases among countries across the world. It ranks after the United States and Brazil, which occupy the top two slots.
Continuing the streak of posting more than 60,000 recoveries each day since the past five days, India has registered 65,081 recoveries in the last 24 hours. The cumulative number of recovered patients has grown to 28,39,882, taking the Recovery Rate among COVID-19 patients to a high of 76.94 percent.
The number of recovered patients has overtaken the active cases by 3.61 times. India has more than 20.53 lakh recovered people than the active cases that stand at 7,85,996 today. The number of recovered patients has grown 4 times from the first week of July to the last week of August 2020.
Active cases accounted for 21.29 percent of all confirmed cases as on today. Fatalities constituted only 1.77 percent of the total positive cases.
In the last 24 hours, five States have posted the highest addition to the new cases in the country. These are Maharashtra (11,852), Andhra Pradesh (10,004), Karnataka (6,495), Tamil Nadu (5,956) and Uttar Pradesh (4,782). Together they account for 56 percent of the confirmed cases added in the last 24 hours.
These five States have also reported the maximum number of patients that were cured and discharged in the last 24 hours, cumulatively accounting for 58.04 percent of the national figure of 65,081 persons. While Maharashtra reported recoveries of 11,158 patients, the corresponding figures for Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka stand at 8,772 and 7,238. Tamil Nadu follows with 6,008, while Uttar Pradesh posted recovery of 4,597 COVID patients.
With a cumulative figure of 536 deaths in the last 24 hours, these five States together account for 65.4 percent of the deaths added to the national total (819). Maharashtra has reported 184 deaths, Karnataka has added 113, followed by Tamil Nadu (91), Andhra Pradesh (85) and Uttar Pradesh (63).
More than 1 million tests conducted in the last 24 hour
22 States/UTs have better TPM than the national average
The guiding principle within the Central Government-led strategy of TEST, TRACK, TREAT has been aggressive testing by the States/UTs. High level of testing on a sustained leads to early diagnosis and enhanced recoveries.
Following this tenet, India’s cumulative tests have crossed 4.3 crores today (4,33,24,834). As many as 1,22,66,514 tests were done in the last two weeks alone.
States/Union Territories are progressively increasing their testing capacity. The States contributing maximum to the overall number of tests include Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra among others. These three States account for nearly 34 percent of the total testing.
India’s per day testing capacity has crossed 10 lakhs tests. 10,16,920 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.
There has been a sustained growth in the average weekly numbers of tests. The weekly average tests have multiplied by more than 4 times since the first week of July 2020.
Expanded diagnostic lab network and facilitation for easy testing across the country have given a substantial boost. The Tests Per Million (TPM) have also seen a sharp increase to 31,394.
In all, 22 States/UTs have better TPM than National Average. Goa, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are reporting maximum number of tests in a day. (eom)
