India records over 66 lakh COVID-19 cases in April, highest since pandemic broke out

India reported more than 66 lakh coronavirus cases in April making it the worst month of the pandemic and the total number of new cases recorded during the month is equivalent to what was earlier witnessed in over six months showing the enormity of the second wave of COVID19With a record number of over 386 lakh new cases recorded in the last 24 hours Indias COVID19 tally has risen to 18767962 from 12149335 at the end of March 2021Earlier it had taken more than six months since September 22 2020 for the caseload to increase by over 66 lakhThe health ministry said since April there has been a steep rise in the number of casesFrom April 5 onwards the country saw over one lakh cases being reported in a day while from April 15 the singleday rise in the number of cases went past two lakh and from April 22 it started recording over three lakh daily casesMaharashtra Delhi Uttar Pradesh Chhattisgarh Gujarat Jharkhand Punjab Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have emerged as the states of concern in the last four weeks Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Lav Agarwal saidSharing data he said from February 417 46 per cent of the cases came from Kerala 256 per cent from Maharashtra and 42 per cent from Tamil Nadu The remaining 244 per cent cases came from the rest of the countryFrom February 18March 3 Maharashtra contributed over 485 per cent of the total cases Kerala 259 per cent and Punjab 33 per cent while the rest of the country accounted for 223 per cent casesFrom March 417 Maharashtra contributed 595 per cent of the total cases followed by Kerala 10 per cent and Punjab 33 per cent The other states accounted for 246 per cent of the casesFrom March 1831 Maharashtra contributed 60 per cent of the cases followed by Punjab five per cent and Karnataka 43 per cent The rest of the country accounted for 30 per cent casesFrom April 114 Maharashtra contributed 432 per cent cases followed by Chhattisgarh 74 per cent and Uttar Pradesh 62 per cent The rest of the country accounted for 431 per cent of the cases during the 14day period Agarwal saidFrom April 1528 Maharashtra contributed 216 per cent of the cases followed by Uttar Pradesh 104 per cent and Delhi 78 per cent The rest of the country accounted for 602 per cent of the cases during the periodAgarwal said while 1290 COVID19 deaths were reported in the country in September last year the figure dropped to 77 in MarchThe death toll in April stood at 3498From February 417 Maharashtra contributed 343 per cent of the deaths followed by Kerala 182 per cent and Punjab 64 per cent The rest of the country accounted for 411 per cent of the deathsFrom February 18 to March 3 Maharashtra recorded 452 per cent of the total deaths in the country followed by Kerala 147 per cent and Punjab 103 per cent The rest of the country accounted for 299 per cent of the deathsFrom March 417 Maharashtra contributed 446 per cent of the total deaths followed by Punjab 163 per cent and Kerala 115 per cent The rest of the country accounted for 275 pc of the deathsFrom March 1831 Maharashtra contributed 416 pc of the total deaths followed by Punjab 197 per cent and Chhattisgarh 65 per cent while the rest of the country accounted for 321 per cent of the fatalitiesFrom April 114 Maharashtra contributed 427 per cent of the total deaths followed by Chhattisgarh 11 per cent and Punjab 83 per cent while the rest of the country accounted for 381 per cent of the deathsFrom April 1528 Maharashtra contributed 263 per cent of the deaths followed by Delhi 123 per cent and Chhattisgarh 89 per cent while the rest of the country accounted for 525 per cent of the deaths Agarwal saidWe saw a peak in September After that we again saw a peak in April This trend was also observed in other countries Some countries have also observed a third waveMany states that had witnessed a peak in September are recording high numbers and this has put the health infrastructure under strain and it is very important to work on this he saidAgarwal cited the example of Maharashtra which saw 24886 cases in September but the figure rose to 68631 cases in April which is 28 times higherSame is the case with Uttar Pradesh which saw 54 times more cases in April than September Chhattisgarh saw a 45time rise Delhi a 33time increase Rajasthan a fivetime spike and Andhra Pradesh saw a 14time rise in the number of cases he saidThe number of active COVID19 cases has reached 3170228 in the country accounting for 1690 per cent of its total caseloadEleven states Maharashtra Karnataka Uttar Pradesh Kerala Rajasthan Gujarat Chhattisgarh Andhra Pradesh Tamil Nadu West Bengal and Bihar cumulatively account for 7818 per cent of the active cases in the country according to the health ministryThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or 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