India posts 26k Covid-19 cases, lowest since March 16

India reported 26,070 cases and 300 deaths on Monday, with the numbers from Assam, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh still awaited. Even with the addition of cases from these states, it is unlikely that the case count will cross 28,859, which makes the day’s count the lowest since March 16.

The dip in cases is most likely linked with lower testing on the weekends. Even when compared with the cases reported on the same day last week, nearly all states reported a decline.

Compared to last Monday, cases declined by 935 in Kerala, while the dip was 364 for Maharashtra. Similarly, cases declined by over a 100 in Meghalaya, Mizoram, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The only state that reported a significant rise in cases is Himachal Pradesh, where the count rose by almost 100 as compared to last week.

Among states, Kerala led the list on Monday with 13,049 cases, followed by Maharashtra (4,505). Apart from these two, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were the only other states that reported over a 1,000 fresh cases. The count was between 500 to 1000 for West Bengal and Odisha while Manipur, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Jammu & Kashmir reported between 100 to 500 cases. The country reported 300 covid deaths on Monday, of which 105 were reported from Kerala, while the toll was 68, 24 and 23 for Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu respectively.

Globally, there has been a fresh surge in Covid cases in the US, Brazil, UK and Iran.