If five States—Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh are contributing almost 70 per cent of the Covid caseload in the country, then there are at least 14 States/UTs which seems to be comparatively safe places having less than 5,000 active Coronavirus cases while Lakshadweep has no active cases.
There are also 20 States and UTs where the number of active cases are between 2,000-5,000, said Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan at a press briefing here.
“Maharashtra's share is around 27 per cent of the total active cases, which in terms of absolute numbers is 2.37 lakhs. This apart, nearly 70 per cet of the COVID-19 related deaths are also being reported from five States—Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The States where active cases are mostly concentrated are also, more or less, accounting for most of the deaths”, he said.
Hence, from the perspective of public health, it is important to take targeted actions in these States, both by the State and Central Governments. This apart, 28 States & UTs have a Case Fatality Rate which is lower than the national average, Bhushan said.
Dr. V.K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog tried to allay fears that cases are spiraling at a faster pace and said that our Covid-19 case numbers are looking big since we are testing in a very liberal manner, which has in turn helped us to reduce mortality rate.
In the last 24 hours, Andhra Pradesh recorded the highest COVID-recoveries with 11,915 recovered cases. Karnataka and Maharashtra followed with 9,575 and 7,826 recoveries respectively while Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh registered 5,820 and 4,779 recoveries, a release from the Union Health Ministry said. These 5 States together contributed 57 per cent of the recoveries in the last 24 hours.
The officer also said that more than 5 crore tests have been conducted so far, which take India to the second highest position in terms of testing with more than 10 lakh tests conducted daily in this week. At the same time, the number of recovered patients is more than 33 lakhs now, and, the highest single day recovery of 73,642 patients has also been recorded in the last 24 hours.
Although the cases are on the rise in terms of absolute numbers, India still has 3,102 cases per million, which is one of the lowest in the world. Also, India's death per million is 53, which falls amongst the lowest in the world, the official pointed out.