India’s COVID cases hit month-high, this state reports spike in deaths

Covid-19 cases have been increasing in the country of 1.35 billion people, with 2,183 new infections reported on Monday, taking the running total to more than 43 million, according to health ministry data.

The health ministry reported 214 more deaths, including 151 since April 13 in the southern state of Kerala, which is widely considered to issue more accurate data than many other states.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the daily case positivity rate also saw a sudden rise from 0.31 per cent (on Sunday) to 0.83 per cent (on Monday). The weekly positivity rate saw an uptick from 0.27 per cent (on Sunday) to 0.32 (on Monday).

However, with the recovery of 1,985 COVID patients in the last 24 hours, the active cases saw a minor decline to 11,542 which account for 0.03 per cent of the total cases.

The total number of recoveries in the country since the onset of the pandemic stands at 4,25,10,773. The recovery rate remained at 98.76 per cent. The death toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 5,21,965.

Delhi continues to register an increase in its daily COVID-19 caseload as it reported 517 new infections during the last 24 hours. As per the Delhi health department, this is the highest number after February 20 when a total of 570 COVID-19 cases were registered.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has repeatedly rejected those higher estimates saying the mathematical models used to estimate deaths in smaller countries cannot be relied on for India.

Apart from Kerala, the capital, Delhi, and the states of Maharashtra and Haryana reported triple-digit increases in infections in the past 24 hours.

However, hospitalisations remained low though those numbers have also been inching up over recent days since all restrictions were dropped. 

*With inputs from agencies