Coronavirus: Last week was India's worst, cases and deaths surged
What's the story
The last week (August 17-22) was the worst one for India, as far as coronavirus cases and deaths are concerned, as the country added over 4.5 lakh cases to its tally and 6,666 deaths. This Sunday, the number of cases surged past the 31-lakh mark after 62,000-odd fresh cases were reported. On the brighter side, there was a marked decrease in the fatality rate.
Fatality numbers
India reported 900 COVID-19 deaths almost daily, last week
India reported a record number of deaths last week (August 17-22), with all days recording 900-plus deaths, except for Sunday (856 deaths). But there is more to it. By Sunday, the nation had lost 57,711 to the highly-contagious disease, with Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu leading in numbers. Till now, Maharashtra has lost 22,465, Tamil Nadu 6,614 people, Karnataka 4,810, and Delhi 4,313.
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Maharashtra has a staggering 6.9 lakh cases now
Maharashtra's total case-load has been pushed to a staggering 6,93,398, making it the worst-affected state. The present number of active cases in the state is 1,90,908. However, over 5 lakh people have recovered so far.
Case tally
After addition of nearly 60,000-cases yesterday, numbers jumped further
With 31,70,942 cases, India now has the highest number of daily new infections. The death toll at present is 58,570. On the other hand, the world has lost 817,211 to the virus with the case fatality rate (CFR) being 3.5%. To note, CFR denotes the proportion of patients dying to the total number of infected people, within a specific time window.
Ray of hope
However, there is a slim ray of hope
However, India is doing better as its fatality rate stands at 1.9%. The number of cases last week also represents a drop in the positivity rate compared to the week before last (August 10-16). According to TOI, during the earlier week, cases grew by 5.9% and deaths surged at 4.4%. And between August 3 and 9, cases surged by 10.9% and deaths 17.5%.
Vaccine efforts
Meanwhile, India has launched efforts to procure coronavirus vaccine
Like other countries, India is also hoping a vaccine becomes available soon. While Biocon's Itolizumab is already being used to treat respiratory problems that are associated with COVID-19, Serum Institute of India is also creating ripples with its vaccine-related efforts. SII has joined hands with Oxford University for mass production of its vaccine; it will be available after trials conclude successfully.