After as many as 20 people who returned from the UK to India being tested positive for the new coronavirus variant has put the country alert on the eve of the New Year. Even so, India will enter the year 2021 with a glimpse of hope provided by the reduction in the number of cases in the past few months.
As daily infections and deaths are witnessing a peak in some European countries and in the United States, the daily increase in India is in a significant downwards trend. Here is a look at the reduction in COVID-19 cases in India in graphs.
More Recoveries Reported than New Cases
India has recorded 96.04 percent COVID-19 recovery rate on Thursday, which is one of the highest globally, according to the Union Health Ministry. The total number of people recovered have crossed 98,60,280 and the gap between active cases and recovered cases is continuously increasing.
The graph below shows how new cases reported daily are less than the number of people recovering reported daily.
Decrease in Deaths Reported Daily
For the last five days now, the number of COVID-19-related deaths has remained below 300. The drop in the daily death count is following the decline in the infections that are being detected every day. There has been a drastic reduction in the number of deaths, as shown in the graph below.
With a high number of COVID patients recovering every day and the sustained fall in the mortality rate, India's steady trend of registering dipping active cases continues, the Health Ministry said in a release. India’s overall case fatality rate is at 1.45 and there has been a drastic drop compared to 3.6 reported during the peak months.
So far, a total of 1,48,738 deaths have been reported so far. The highest number of deaths have been reported in Maharashtra (49,463), followed by Tamil Nadu (12,109) and Karnataka (12,081).
This reduction in the number of cases, however, does not reduce the dangers of a fresh outbreak and the threat of the new strand of virus. Wearing of masks, social distancing and government’s efforts to provide vaccines would be crucial to contain the pandemic in the new year.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)