India cases falling, but big surge in Kerala, C’garh

India has been reporting a steady decline in Covid-19 cases over the past three weeks but the pandemic continues to surge in several states. Cases in Kerala rose by 112% during this period, at three times the national rate, while Chhattisgarh saw a 93% rise, Uttarakhand 61%, and Odisha and MP 54% each. Overall, India saw a 37% growth in cases in three weeks (September 13-October 4), down from 56% in the previous three weeks.

Monday Covid cases lowest since Aug 24
Daily cases in the country had peaked around September 13. Since then, as many as 21 states and UTs have grown at a higher rate than the national average, indicating that the country may continue to see the pandemic surging in some parts of the country while cases fall in other places.

At the other end of the list was Bihar, where cases have grown at around half the national rate (19%) in the past three weeks — the lowest growth registered by any state. The next lowest growth was in Tamil Nadu, where cases grew by 23%, followed by Gujarat (26%), Andhra Pradesh (27%), Telangana (27%) and Assam (32%).

In the middle were the two worst hit states — Maharashtra that grew at 36% (fractionally lower than the national average) and Karnataka, which grew at 39%, a shade higher than India’s rate. Meanwhile, 59,471 fresh cases were recorded on Monday, the first time since August 24 that the daily count had fallen below the 60,000 mark. While case counts dip every Monday, the number has been progressively decreasing over the past four Mondays — 80,663 on September 14, 73,279 on September 21 and 66,251 on September 28.

In another pointer to the pandemic’s sharp surge in Kerala, the state now has the highest number of active cases per million population in the country, with 2,421cases per million as against 2,297 in Maharashtra, 1,845 in Karnataka and 1,503 in Delhi.