Coronavirus India Updates: Tally Tops 38.5 Lakh With Nearly 84,000 New Cases

India continues to add new coronavirus cases at a record pace a time the nation announced the fourth phase of lifting lockdown restrictions.

India added nearly 84,000 cases in 24 hours, taking the total tally to more than 38.5 lakh in Asia’s third-largest economy, according to the Health Ministry’s update as of 8 a.m. on Sept. 3. This includes over 67,000 deaths and nearly 30 lakh patients who have recovered.

This is the highest number of new cases reported in a day in India, or anywhere else in the world. To be sure, labs across the country tested over 11.7 lakh samples on Sept. 2, likely contributing to the spike in detection of fresh infections.

Key figures:

• Total number of confirmed coronavirus cases: 38,53,406
• Active cases: 8,15,538
• Cured/discharged/migrated: 29,70,492
• Deaths: 67,376
• Number of fresh cases in 24 hours: 83,883
• One-day recoveries: 68,584
• One-day deaths: 1043

At the current trajectory, India’s outbreak will eclipse Brazil’s in less than a week, and the U.S. in about two months.

Despite the rise in absolute number of Covid-19 deaths, India’s fatality rate is a mere 1.8%. Active cases make up for 21% of the virus pie and recoveries constitute 77%.

Global Update

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told states to prepare for a Covid-19 vaccine to be ready by Nov. 1, an aggressive goal that suggests availability just before the presidential election. France reported that new cases are being added at the fastest weekly pace since the pandemic began, and new infections in Spain remained near a four-month high. Britain’s government made another U-turn after pressure from opponents, keeping local lockdown rules in place.

Globally, the total number of cases top 25.7 million, including more than 857,000 dead.

Track all Covid-19 related news and updates in India, here.

Daily Covid cases rose from around 50,000 daily in the beginning of August to around 80,000 cases by August-end. If the states increase their test capacity to match their test positivity, the total number of cases could hypothetically even increase by upto 50,000 over current levels on a daily basis, SBI Research said in a note.

Here are other points the research note highlights:

• Some States like Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra and West Bengal have higher elderly population, and this explains higher fatality rate of Covid. However, certain states Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh have been successful in preventing Covid related death and have low fatality rates of Covid, even though these states have a high segment of elderly population
• Seven days average growth in top 20 states reveal higher growth of Covid cases in Odisha, Kerala followed by Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh
• States have resorted to partial lockdowns in July and August. However, the same has resulted in a perverse result of increase in cases as short lockdowns have the undesired impact of large conglomerations before the designated lockdown date
• Maharashtra is significantly lagging in tests and must ramp up tests significantly to arrest the spread. Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan also reveal the wide and persistent gap between test positivity and tests per million
• Some of the worst affected states are poor in respect of Health and Social Infrastructure.