In Focus: Top 10 states reporting surge in COVID-19 cases

Maharashtra will go into weekend lockdown starting from Friday evening as the authorities announced fresh restrictions earlier this week.

India’s COVID-19 case tally is now above 14 million with 200,739 new cases reported as per the health ministry’s April 15, 2021 update. New cases recorded the highest-ever single day spike, thereby posting a new high for the second consecutive day.

“Cases are going to increase as the new variant is more infectious than the previous one and testing has been ramped up,” says Dr Deepak Saxena, Epidemiologist and Professor at the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar. Large scale religious gatherings and elections can be super spreaders, he adds.

More than 1.38 million daily tests reported as on April 14 with more than 262 million tests carried out till date. Testing has picked up since March 18, reporting over 1 million tests daily, except for a few days.

Maharashtra reported the most (58,952 or 29 percent) new cases in the last 24 hours, followed by Uttar Pradesh (20,439), Delhi (17,282), Chhattisgarh (14,250), Karnataka (11,265), Madhya Pradesh (9,720), Kerala (8,778), Tamil Nadu (7,819), Gujarat (7,410) and Rajasthan (6,200).

These 10 states that reported the most fresh cases as per April 15 update, account for 81 percent of all the new cases in India. Here’s how cases across these states in the second wave are surging:

“The Indian pandemic as a whole is a patchwork of pandemics in the Indian states. Somewhat unusually, state-wide numbers seem to be rising in lock-step,” Gautam Menon, Professor at Departments of Physics and Biology, Ashoka University, said. There is a concern that this may reflect the importance of reinfections. Should that be the case, we may be in for an extended period in which cases will continue to rise or stay at the same level at best,” he said.

India now has 1,471,877 active cases, with an increase of 106,173 cases in 24 hours as per the April 15 update. Maharashtra now reports the most (613,635 or 42 percent) active cases in the country, followed by Chhattisgarh (118,636) and Uttar Pradesh (111,835).

More than 114 million vaccinations have been administered across India, according to the April 15 update, with 3,313,848 new vaccinations reported in a day.

While cases are on the rise, the pace of daily vaccination has not been consistent, data show.

Of the total vaccinations administered till date, 87 percent are recipients of their first dose while 13 percent have received the second dose. Among states, Maharashtra has administered the most nearly 11.1 million vaccine doses, followed by Rajasthan (10.2 million) and Gujarat (9.9 million).

“Overall strategy of prioritising vulnerable populations such as the elderly and those with comorbidities should continue to be pursued,” says Professor Menon. Pace of vaccination should be increased along with approval for more vaccines--as has been done for the Sputnik-V, he suggests, to contain the spread of the disease.

India reported 1,038 new deaths (highest this year) in the last 24 hours, the latest release shows. Maharashtra also reported the most 278 or 27 percent new deaths, followed by Chhattisgarh (120), Delhi (104), Gujarat (73) and Uttar Pradesh (67).

India recorded 93,528 new recoveries, while recovery rate further dropped to 88.3 percent. Maharashtra recorded the most 39,624 new recoveries, followed by Delhi (9,952), Chhattisgarh (4,633), Uttar Pradesh (4,517) and Karnataka (4,364). The total recoveries in India are now over 1.24 crore while total deaths now stand at 173,123 as per April 15 update.

“Testing, early detection and treatment of mild cases should be emphasised. Death audits and data sharing is must for early identification of hotspots and planning,” says Dr Saxena. “If one closely observes data for 70 odd districts, these show 80 percent of the total COVID cases in the country. We need to go for targeted vaccination and first target these districts rather than sharing resources in other districts.”

“Vaccination criteria and strategy could be relooked in these 70 districts by exploring to vaccinate all above the age of 18 years, roping in NGOs, private sector and hospitals facilitating 24x7 service,” Dr Saxena added.