India becomes 1st country to cross 80k cases in a day

India becomes 1st country to cross 80k cases in a day

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:31.08.2020

India added a record 80,092 fresh Covid cases on Sunday, becoming the first country in the world to cross the 80,000-mark in a single day since the outbreak of the pandemic, even as the week ending August 30 turned out to be the worst week of the month. The growth rate in both fresh cases and fatalities in this week not only increased after a dip, but more than doubled compared to the preceding week.

The highest peak of 80,000-plus cases comes on a Sunday when the number of fresh infections have been lower than other days of the week because of a lull in testing during the weekends. The highest peak of fresh cases on a Sunday was last recorded on August 9 with 63,851fresh cases.

However, more alarming than the new peak in fresh infections is the growth rate of both fresh cases and fatalities shooting up in the last week of August after a dip which was seen in the earlier weeks of the month.

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With more than 76,000 fresh cases being registered daily for five consecutive days, the growth rate this week at 13.1% was almost three times the 4.7% growth registered the previous week. This was 5.9% in the preceding week and 10.9% in the first week of the month (Aug 3-9).

Similarly, with 1,000-plus fresh deaths recorded for four consecutive days, the growth rate in fatalities this week, at 3.9%, was more than double of 1.7% recorded in the previous week.

Sunday’s peak of fresh cases came on the back of Maharashtra recording its second highest surge with 16,408 infections – more than 16,000 cases for the second consecutive day – as well as five other states registering their highest peaks. Maharashtra registered its highest peak with 16,867 new cases just a day ago.

On Sunday, the states/ UT which registered their highest peak were Uttar Pradesh (which crossed the 6,000-mark for the first time with 6,233 new cases), Rajasthan (1,450 fresh cases), Madhya Pradesh (1,558), Chhattisgarh (1,471), and Jammu & Kashmir (786).

With 970 fresh deaths on Sunday, India’s toll inched closer to the 65,000-mark at 64,550. Maharashtra, the worst affected state, registered 296 fresh deaths on Sunday, taking the toll to 24399, which is nearly 38% of the country’s total fatalities.

While the cumulative caseload of the country crossed the 36-lakh mark on Sunday at 36,16,730, the number of patients who have recovered is 27,67,412. The number of active cases is close to the 8-lakh mark at 7,84,768.

Andhra Pradesh emerged as the second worst affected state in the country, with 10,603 new infections in the country taking the state’s caseload to 4,24,767, thereby pushing Tamil Nadu to the third place with a caseload of 4,22,085.

TOUGH TESTING: A woman gives sample at mobile Covid testing bus at ENT hospital in Visakhapatnam on Sunday

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