For The Second Time This Week, Daily COVID-19 Cases Have Come Down Below 2 Lakhs
In the past 24 hours, India added more than 1.8 lakh new COVID-19 cases and 3,660 deaths from the virus infection.
This is the lowest single-day rise in new cases reported in India in 44 days.?
This is also the second time this week the number of daily cases has fallen below the 2 lakhs mark.
On Monday, May 24, India had recorded 1.95 lakh COVID-19 infections in a day.?
On Friday the number of active cases further declined to 23.43 lakh while over 2.48 crore people have recovered from the virus till now.
New infections slowing down
This comes as the country has been experiencing a slow down in new infections over the past few weeks, indicating that the worst of the second wave could be behind us.
At its peak earlier this month India had recorded over 4.14 lakh cases in 24 hours, the highest ever recorded anywhere in the world.
Since then the cases have been falling, thanks to the lockdowns in many worst-hit states.
Lockdown helped?
Except for Tamil Nadu, data from most of the states suggest that the second wave may have peaked there as well.
At its peak Maharashtra, the worst-hit state had recorded over 67,000 cases in a day. That has now come down to nearly one-third at 21,000 in a day.
In Karnataka, the second worst-hit state the daily tally has come down to half of the peak which was over 48,000 to 24,000 now.
In Delhi, the number of new cases has dropped from the high of over 28,000 to just over the 1,000 mark in the past few days.
Another indication of the second wave of COVID-19 has crossed the peak is how the number of fatalities are gradually reducing.
On May 18, India had recorded 4,519 deaths from COVID-19 in 24 hours, the highest so far. From that, the death toll has come down to around 3,500 in a day.
Sill higher than the first wave
While it is a good sign that the second wave of COVID-19 may have peaked, a daily infection of close to 2 lakhs is way too high.
At its peak on September 12, India had recorded 97,570 new cases and 1,201 deaths.
With the infection rate slowing down again, many states have started planning to lift the restrictions.
But there is also a growing fear that with the vaccination drive failing to keep up pace with the demand, opening up too early could see the virus coming back, which will undo all the work that was done in the past few months to arrest the spread.
