Skip to main content

India Covid-19 numbers explained: Why Kerala might re-enter top 10 states soon

India coronavirus cases: With more than 18,000 new cases being detected in the last three days, Kerala has emerged as the state with the fastest growing coronavirus numbers right now. Kerala still has relatively lesser number of confirmed infections compared to states like Maharashtra or Andhra Pradesh, but at the rate at which it has been adding new cases in the last couple of weeks, it is all set to make a re-entry into the list of top ten states with highest caseloads within a few days.

In the last one week, almost 35,000 new cases have been discovered in the state, taking the total number of confirmed infections to 1.61 lakh. The current growth rate of cases is 3.51 per cent per day, which is the highest in the country and more than double of national rate which is 1.53 per cent per day.


Kerala also has close to 49,000 active cases, which is the fifth highest in the country. Only Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have more active cases.


On Thursday, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had described the situation as grave. “There is a steep hike in the number of positive cases in many districts. We are moving to a serious situation,” he had said.

Health economist and guest faculty at IIM Kozhikode Prof Rijo M John has said the recent surge in the state could be a result of relatively low testing because of which a lot of cases remain undetected. “While case have been growing, Kerala is not stepping up testing. Without more testing, we cannot even predict the peak for Covid19 cases in the state,” he said.

Kerala had been a slow starter in conducting diagnostic tests. It has picked up in the last couple of months, but as Dr Fazal Ghafoor, a member of the expert committee that advises the state government on Covid19 management, put it, there was need for carrying out many more tests. The state has conducted 26.57 lakh tests till now. For the last three days, it has been testing more than 50,000 samples, which is an improvement from previous weeks. The increased tests too have contributed in more cases being detected.


Meanwhile, the recoveries once again significantly outnumbered the detection of new cases in the country on Friday. More than 93,000 Covid19 patients were declared to have recovered, while over 85,000 new infections were detected. This takes the number of people to have been infected with the virus at some point to 59.03 lakh, out of which 48.49 lakh, or a little over 82 per cent, have now recovered.

In seven out of last eight days, recoveries have exceeded the new detection of cases, leading to a significant fall in the active cases. As on Friday, the active cases in the country had dropped to 9.6 lakh from a high of 10.17 on September 17.

The number of confirmed infections in Maharashtra has now touched 13 lakh. Close to 18,000 new cases were reported from the state on Friday, well below the recent normal of 22,000 to 25,000 cases every day. The death toll in the state has crossed 35,000, which is more than 37 per cent of all the coronavirus-related deaths in the country.

Odisha now has more than 2 lakh people who have so far been infected with the virus. The state has been reporting more than 4,000 cases every day

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Increased risks of drop out for women and girls : CoronaVirus Updates

The total number of children not returning to their education after the school closures is likely to be significant. The pandemic also risks jeopardizing some of the gains made since 2001 in re-building women and girls’ education following the Taliban regime.  The COVID-19 pandemic is creating additional barriers due to risks—and students’ and parents’ anxiety about risks—associated with children returning to classrooms that are cramped, with no capacity for distancing, often cold, damp and poorly ventilated during the country’s severe winters, and have no or poor hygiene and clean water facilities. The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to drive many women and girls out of education permanently. School closures due to COVID-19, resulting increases in caregiving responsibilities for women and girls, and increases in poverty and unemployment will all make it harder for women and girls to study.  These factors combine in harmful ways with pre-existing discriminatory gender norms, o...

Iran, Russia Discussing Joint Production Of COVID-19 Vaccine

Iran and Russia's sovereign wealth fund RDIF are discussing the joint production of a vaccine against COVID-19, Russian news agencies cited the Iranian ambassador to Moscow as saying on Friday. "We are holding talks, I spoke with the head of RDIF Kirill Dmitriev, our officials have held several rounds of consultations and we announced that we will co-operate," Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali was cited as saying. Thus far, Russia has struck a manufacturing partnership deal with India, which is due to produce 300 million doses of the 'Sputnik-V' vaccine domestically. It is also discussing such partnerships with several other countries, including Brazil.

Covid - 19 Effect : Increased risks of violence against women and girls, exploitation and child marriage

In addition to dropping out of school, education disruption puts girls and young women at increased risk of numerous abuses: child marriage, exploitation, child labor, early pregnancy, and gender-based violence.  School closures, the loss of protective spaces provided by school, lockdowns spent at home and COVID-19 mitigation measures disrupt children›s routine, and place new stressors on parents and caregivers, contributing to an increase in the severity and frequency of domestic violence across the country. School closures represent the loss of a safe space, where girls who are experiencing violence and abuse can find respite, and where there is an opportunity for adults to identify signs of abuse and intervene in their lives. School closures and the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 have increased the risk of reliance on negative coping mechanisms, such as child marriage. With many families losing their means of livelihood, girls are at increased risk of being forced to drop...