Dr Nitin Pandey
Saturday was another usual Corona day for India, with some good news. The recovery rate was significantly up to 63.5% as compared to 57% last week and the fatality rate dropped further to 2. 35%, one of the lowest in the world. While there were roughly 49,000 new cases on Saturday, almost 33,500 recovered, so the net increase in cases was just around 16,000.
As the Pandemic surges, which is totally expected, all states across the country are seeing a rapid rise. While the top three states, viz Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi account for over 17,000 cases other States like Karnataka, AP, UP and West Bengal have now showing significant rise and will have their surge peaks, probably all at different times. India is expected to have the highest number of total cases in the World, because of the sheer size of our population, which is roughly six times that of Brazil and four times of US. China the world’s most populous country reports a ridiculously low case count of 83,784 cases total, one sixth of the case numbers in Maharashtra.
Uttarakhand had a relatively stable rise of 244 cases, with Dehradun (72) and Haridwar (61) leading the way. What is significant though is that in Dehradun only 14 had no history of contact or travel, rest all either returned from outside or were first contacts of infected persons, which implies a very low local spread rate. In Dehradun 30 people were discharged after treatment, so the net rise was just 42 cases. Our testing rate has improved with number of pending tests declining from nearly 10,000 a few days ago to approx 6,500 today.
(Dr Nitin Pandey is a Dehradun based ex Indian Air Force doctor, a Pediatrician and an active Social worker.)
