75,000 deaths in May so far; 2nd wave shifts to east India

The first 19 days of this month have already recorded 75,000 reported Covid deaths which are by far the highest for any month. The previous record was held by April 2021 which saw about 49,000 deaths. Apart from these two months, the death toll was less than 6,000 for each of the first three months of this year. During the peak of the first wave, September was the deadliest month that saw over 33,000 reported covid deaths.

The day also saw a marginal increase in cases which remained low in the first two days of the week. Because of lower testing over the weekend, the first two days typically report the lowest cases in every week. The days’s case count of 2,76,476 fresh infections was higher than the first two days of the week but Wednesday was the fourth consecutive day when cases didn’t breach the 3-lakh benchmark. With the day’s count of 3,882, deaths too remained below 4,000 for the third consecutive day.

With 34,875 cases, TN’s tally was the highest for Wednesday and it was followed by Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala — each of them reporting over 30,000 cases in the past 24 hours. As many as 14 states reported over a hundred deaths in the past 24 hours. The list was topped by Maharashtra with 594 deaths followed by Karnataka with 468 Covid-related fatalities.

The analysis of cases on May 19 as compared to May 1 shows that the wave has now shifted eastwards. In the south, there is an increase in cases on the east coast as TN and Andhra saw a rise in cases while fresh infections dipped in Kerala, Karnataka and Telangana.