Number of new coronavirus infections in India has peaked, stated a report. It also added that there is, however, substantial variation among states and union territories in terms of the trajectories of new cases.
According to a new tracker developed by researchers at the Cambridge Judge Business School and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, new cases have peaked in the country. "But there is substantial variation among states and union territories in their trajectories, with cases continuing to increase over the next two weeks in areas such as Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Tripura," the report stated.
The projections are in line with the ones by experts including Prime Minister Narendra Modi's advisers.
The World Health Organisation also said the strain first identified in India has higher rates of transmission. "A recent risk assessment of the situation in India conducted by WHO found that resurgence and acceleration of COVID-19 transmission in India had several potential contributing factors, including increase in the proportion of cases of SARS-CoV-2 variants with potentially increased transmissibility; several religious and political mass gathering events which increased social mixing; and, underuse of and reduced adherence to public health and social measures," it said.
India reported 3,48,421 new COVID-19 cases and 4,205 deaths in the last 24 hours. Recovery rate rises to 83 per cent and the case positivity has also declined to 17.56 per cent. India's COVID-19 tally crossed the 20 lakh on August 7 last year, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It surpassed 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and 1 crore on December 19 last year. The figure crossed the grim milestone of 2 crore on May 4.
On May 7, India reported a record 414,188 new cases -- about 32 per cent higher than the world's previous peak reported by the US last year. It must be mentioned that this high was reached even as testing was just a fraction of what the US had done.
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Also read: 3.48 new Covid-19 cases, record 4,205 deaths in 24 hours; positivity rate dips to 17.56%