Weekly cases fall below 1 lakh for the first time since February

In good news ahead of Diwali, India reported less than 1 lakh fresh cases of Covid-19 in the week ending Sunday, the first time since mid-February this year that the weekly numbers had fallen below the six-figure mark.

India recorded just over 96,500 cases during the week (October 25-31), a drop of 11% from the total in the previous seven days. Last week, Covid cases in the country had remained flat, with a drop of just 1%, raising fears of a surge in numbers during the festive season.

This week’s case count was the lowest since the beginning of the second wave in mid-February, when less than 90,000 cases were recorded in February 15-21. The sharp drop in numbers this week was mainly on account of cases falling in Kerala, Maharashtra and other southern states. While Maharashtra logged a drop of 23%, with 8,633 new cases as opposed to 11,264 last week. Weekly cases in the state have fallen below 10,000 for the first time since the initial months of the pandemic.

Kerala reported a fall of nearly 13% since last week, with the state reporting 53,326 new cases. Numbers were also down in Tamil Nadu (08.8%), Karnataka (-7%) and Andhra Pradesh (-7.5%).

Meanwhile, Bengal reported a rise in cases for the second week in a row. Infections rose by nearly 9%, with the state reporting 6,453 fresh cases, the highest weekly count since July 5-11. However, the pace of rise had slowed since Bengal had seen a surge of 41% in the previous week. Himachal Pradesh too reported an increase of 22%.