With the number of coronavirus cases in the country witnessing a sudden spurt in the past few days and tally heading towards 60,000 marks on Friday, the Union Health Ministry said, “We have to learn to live with the virus.”
The death tally is all set to touch 2,000 marks. There was nearly 3,000 new cases and 94 deaths during Friday.
Some reports said at the current rate of daily growth, the number of cases would rise to 75,000 in five days. If this trajectory continues beyond that period, it could overwhelm India’s hospital capacity and strain an already overburdened health system.
In view of no let-up in cases and new infection being reported from several pockets, the Union Health Ministry is now in the process of revising the list of Red, Orange and Green Zones.
Addressing mediapersons, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary at the Health Ministry, said, “We have to learn to live with the virus. We need to introduce certain behavioural changes to implement these (social distancing) practices.”
According to the Health Ministry, 16,540 Covid-19 patients, which are about 29.36 per cent of the total cases, have recovered so far, while in the past 24 hours, 1,273 people have been cured.
“So far, in 216 districts, no positive case has been detected. In 42 districts no new case has been detected in the last 28 days, while 29 districts have not reported any case in the last 21 days,” the official said.
He said 3.2 per cent of the total active cases are on oxygen support, 4.2 per cent in ICUs and 1.1 per cent on ventilator.
Although India’s coronavirus trajectory has tapered, it continues to be steeper compared to Asian peers such as Japan and Singapore. The rise of infections in India is now faster than in neighbours Bangladesh and Pakistan.
At 19,063, Maharashtra leads in terms of the number of cases, Gujarat has the second most number (7,403), followed by Tamil Nadu (6,009) and Delhi (5,980) followed by Rajasthan (3,419) and Madhya Pradesh (3,341). West Bengal reported 1,678 cases.
Tamil Nadu had earlier dropped out of the top five list but a recent surge in new infections has put it among the top five once again.
The top five States together account for 75 per cent of the active cases nationally, and the top ten states account for 94 per cent of all cases.
Over the past seven days, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra have seen the highest spike in cases among the top ten states with most cases. These three States account for 75 per cent of all the new active cases in this period. Over the same period, fatalities have surged the most in West Bengal, Gujarat, and Rajasthan. These three States account for 50 per cent of all Covid-related deaths over the past seven days.
So far, 512 districts have confirmed cases in the country. Mumbai (11,394 cases) has reported the most number of cases nationally among all districts, followed by Ahmedabad (5,260) in Gujarat. Chennai (3046) in Tamil Nadu, Pune (2,129) in Maharashtra are the other leading districts. These top five districts now account for 42 per cent of confirmed cases in the country.
Indore (1,699) in Madhya Pradesh, New Delhi (1,458), Jaipur (1,097) in Rajasthan, Jodhpur (867) in Rajasthan, and Kolkata (810) in West Bengal are the other high-burden districts which figure in the list of top ten districts.
The top ten districts account for 53 per cent of the confirmed cases nationally. Most of India’s hotspots so far have been urban affluent districts, with richer states hit harder than the rest. The death toll reached 1,886, with the most fatalities in Maharashtra at 734, followed by Gujarat. Delhi, on the other hand, is likely to see a “peak” in coronavirus cases in June-July, said the coronavirus response committee formed by the State Chief Minister.