Coronavirus / India's COVID-19 cases reach 14L from 13L in 2 days after biggest daily jump

New Delhi: India added a record 49,931 fresh cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and 708 deaths between Sunday and Monday morning, pushing the tally to more than 14 lakh, according to the Union health ministry.

It took just two days for the country’s tally to reach 14,35,453—there were 13,36,861 Covid-19 cases on July 25.

The health ministry’s dashboard showed there are 485,114 active cases of Covid-19 and 32,771 people have succumbed to the viral disease till date.

The recovery rate of patients of the coronavirus disease went slightly up to 63.92% from Sunday’s 63.91% after 31,991 people were discharged from hospitals across the country. So far, 917,567 people have recovered from Covid-19.

The gap between active and recovered cases has widened to 432,453 now.

The surge in numbers came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said people need to remain “extra vigilant” as the threat posed by the outbreak persists.

PM Modi said, while addressing his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat, India’s recovery rate is higher than that of other countries and its fatalities lower, but the “hazards are far from over”.

The PM also said it was important to practise social distancing and wear masks to fight the virus.

“At many places, it is spreading fast... We have to bear in mind that Corona is as fatal today as it was in the beginning – that’s why we have to be fully cautious,” he said.

According to data analysed by HT, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar face the immediate risk of becoming the new hotspots of Covid-19 due to a rapid increase in new cases, rising positivity rates and low testing.

Karnataka has reported 96,141 cases, Andhra Pradesh 96,298, West Bengal 58,718 and Bihar 39,176 so far.

Maharashtra continued to the worst-hit state in the country with an infection tally of 375,799, followed by Tamil Nadu with 213,723 cases and Delhi with 130,606 cases.

Data from Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office showed on Sunday that the number of deaths from the coronavirus disease reduced from 1,089 between June 1 and June 12 to 605 recorded between July 1 and July 12, a drop of 44.50%.

The analysis conducted by the Delhi health department showed that in the July period, the deaths recorded within 24 hours of hospital admission dropped to 15%, down from the 34% figure in the June period.

The data also showed that the percentage of deaths recorded within four days of admission to hospitals witnessed a drop from 67% to 35% in the two periods.

According to Johns Hopkins University’s tracker, there are more than 16 million people who have contracted the viral disease and 647,928 patients have died so far across the world.