India logs 40,000 cases again, in third place after Brazil and US

India logs 40,000 cases again, in third place after Brazil and US

Atul.Thakur@timesgroup.com

23.03.2021 

For the fourth consecutive day, more than 40,000 fresh cases were reported in the country and the steady increase of cases has once again pushed India to become the world’s third-worst affected country in terms of daily cases.

Data compiled by WHO shows that once again the trio of Brazil, the USA and India are leading the world in daily cases. WHO data shows that on March 22, Brazil had reported 79,069 new cases, the highest in the world, followed by the US at 60,228 and India 46,951 cases. Analysis of daily case data for the past few days shows that India reached the third spot on March 19 and since then it has maintained that position.

India reported 40,622 fresh cases, with data from Assam yet to arrive till late at night. An analysis of state-wise data shows that the increase in daily cases was no longer confined to few a states. Despite being a Monday, when cases dip every week, at least 9 states reported the highest case count since January or earlier Gujarat for instance reported 1,640 cases on Monday, the highest ever in the state. Today’s cases were higher than 1,607 cases reported on the earlier peak that the state reached on November 27. Similarly, Monday saw the highest cases this year for Chhattisgarh (1,525), Madhya Pradesh (1,348), Delhi (888) and Himachal Pradesh (200). Tamil Nadu also reported 1,385 cases on Monday which was the highest since December 14. Rajasthan on the other hand reported 602 cases which were the highest since January 1. Similarly, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha too reported the highest cases since January 10 and January 24 respectively.

Meanwhile, Punjab saw a big surge in fatalities on Monday, with 58 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the highest in the country along with Maharashtra, which also recorded 50 fatalities.

So many peaks at the state level suggests that it is highly likely that there is a pan-India resurgence of cases and if cases continue to this level then it might soon breach the 50,000 mark. Although Maharashtra reported 24,645 cases on Monday which is over 60% of the cases reported in the country the disease is no more confined alone in Maharashtra as cases are steadily increasing elsewhere as well. The case count was over 1,000 for Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.

Deaths too were increasing and the daily toll breached the 200 mark on Sunday.

SPIKE CONTINUES: The daily toll breached the 200-mark on Sunday