Weekly cases at 2-mth high, Kerala accounts for 66%

Weekly cases at 2-mth high, Kerala accounts for 66%

Amit.Bhattacharya@timesgroup.com

30.08.2021

The sharp surge in Covid-19 infections in Kerala post Onam sent India’s cases in the week ending Sunday zooming to an eight-week high, with the southern state alone accounting for 66% of all cases in the country in this period.

India recorded more than 2.9 lakh fresh Covid cases in the week (August 23-29), a 32% jump from the tally in the preceding seven days. This was the highest number of weekly infections since the June 28-July 4 week when 3.05 lakh cases were recorded.

Kerala alone reported over 1.9 lakh cases, a massive 55% rise from the previous week’s tally of 1.25 lakh. This was the highest number of infections in the state in 14 weeks since May 16-23 and the highest in any Indian state in 13 weeks.

Not since the early days of the pandemic has any single state accounted for two-thirds of all Covid cases in the country in a week. That Kerala currently appears to be in a league of its own can be gauged from the fact that none of the state’s neighbours — Karnataka and Tamil Nadu — have reported any significant rise in numbers this week.

The only other large state where weekly Covid numbers seem to have risen is Maharashtra, which recorded a marginal increase of less than 1%.

Kerala, meanwhile, also became the second state in the country after Maharashtra to record more than 40 lakh Covid cases so far. Kerala crossed the grim milestone on Sunday, when the state recorded 29,836 new cases. Maharashtra's total caseload is over 64.5 lakh.

India recorded a 10.5% rise in deaths during the week. There were 3,439 fatalities in the period as opposed to 3,111 in the previous week.

Meanwhile, India logged more than 40,000 daily cases for the fifth straight day, with Sunday’s tally at 43,399 (with Jharkhand figures yet to arrive). The day saw 373 deaths while the number of active cases rose by around 7,000 to nearly 3.8 lakh. Of these, more than 2.1 lakh were in Kerala.

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