E-Paper
The state of States: What numbers show a month after Covid-19 lockdown
With over 6,400 cases and 283 deaths as of April 23, Maharashtra remains the worst-hit state in the country by a large margin.
With over 500 cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and 11 deaths, the country was put under a complete lockdown on March 25, starting the country’s full-blown battle against the pandemic. At the end of the first month of the lockdown, we take a look at the numbers that the outbreak has resulted in.
Test vs Cases vs Death
With over 6,400 cases and 283 deaths as of April 23, Maharashtra remains the worst-hit state in the country by a large margin. But, with over 96,000 samples tested, it is also leading in terms of the number of people being tested there. Gujarat and Delhi have 2,624 and 2,376 cases as of April 23 and have both conducted more than 30,000 tests. Rajasthan, meanwhile, has the second highest number of tests in the country with over 69,000 samples tested.
Test per million vs Cases per Million
Once the population is factored in, the chart presents a new picture. Punjab, with the highest cases-per-million population (226) and tests-per-million (7,017) stands out from the rest of the country. With the third highest testing rate per resident and the second highest case rate in India, Delhi also stands out. States that have a high death rate such as MP and Gujarat have relatively low testing figures when population is taken into account.
(Regions compared by tests per million and cases reported per million residents; size of circle denotes total number of deaths reported in the state)
Top 10 states: Last 10 days
If we look at the data from the last 10 days, the spike of cases in Gujarat has been alarming. On April 14, the western state had only reported 650 cases. In the 10 days since, it has seen more than a 300% increase in number of cases. With a nearly 140% increase in total cases in the last 10 days, however, Maharashtra remains the state with the highest number of cases in the country. The national tally, in this period, has more than doubled in the past 10 days.
The 4 weeks of lockdown
A day after the lockdown was clamped across the country, India reported 722 total cases. In the next 7 days, nearly 1,800 new cases were reported. Nearly 46% cases reported between March 27 and April 2 came from one of three regions – Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi. A total of 4,181 cases was reported in the week between April 3 and April 9. The same three states remained the biggest contributors to the national tally next week, accounting for 45% of all cases in the country. In the last two weeks, Tamil Nadu and Delhi dropped out of the top 5 regions that reported new cases. In the week between April 17 and April 23, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan have together reported more than 60% of all new cases in India.
A month later, on April 25, India’s tally of the coronavirus disease stands at 24,506—including 18,668 active cases, 5063 cured, discharged or migrated and 775 deaths, according to the health ministry’s dashboard at 8am.
