Ahead of Diwali, weekly Covid cases at 6-month low, deaths drop by 50%

After a marginal rise last week, Covid cases in India fell steeply again ahead of Diwali, falling to the lowest weekly count in over six months. Deaths saw a sharper decline of over 50% in the week ending Sunday and the seven-day TPR dropped to under 1% for the first time since early June.

Significantly, the seven-day test positivity rate - the proportion of Covid tests returning a positive result - fell below 1% during the current week (October 17-23), again for the first time since early June. During the subsequent rise in infections, the seven-day TPR had touched a high of nearly 5% on July 30.

India is likely to report around 13,500 fresh cases during the week (October 17-23), down around 22% from 17,454 in the previous seven days, as per TOI's Covid database. This is the lowest tally of new cases since April 11-17, which was the last time less than 10,000 infections were detected during a week in India.

Covid-19 deaths fell below 50 to around 40, down from 95 last week, mainly on account of a sharp decline in fatalities reported from Kerala. Weekly cases rose in a few states, including UP (by over 20%) Rajasthan (around 20%) and Uttarakhand while remaining flat or registering slight declines in Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka and Telangana. Most other states reported a drop in infections.

Kerala continued to record a drop in fresh cases, with its weekly count dropping to 2,600, around the same as Maharashtra. Delhi reported a 7.8% dip in infections, with the capital recording 721 new cases as opposed to 782 last week.