Revision as of 07:54, 25 December 2020

An overview

2020

December 25, 2020: The Times of India

Covid 19 in India, Jan to Dec 23, 2020, a state-wise overview
From: December 25, 2020: The Times of India

11 months of ups and downs in India’s battle against Covid

The peaks of 90,000+ daily cases appear far behind now, but as the new year beckons, India has a wary eye open for a new strain. Atul Thakur charts the course of the virus since the first case in January

India reported its first Covid-19 case on January 30 when an Indian student in Wuhan tested positive upon her return to Kerala. Through February, though, India added only two more cases, taking the country's cumulative total to three cases and zero deaths.

The coronavirus’ real onslaught began in March — within the first 10 days, many large states began reporting cases. Delhi, Rajasthan and Telangana reported their first cases on March 2, followed by Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on March 4. Separated by thousands of kilometres both Tamil Nadu and Ladakh reported their first case on March 7. On March 9, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Punjab reported positive cases. By March-end, 27 of the 36 states and UTs had reported positive cases. India also saw its first Covid-19 deaths on March 13, when both Delhi and Karnataka reported their first fatalities. By the end of the month, 13 states had witnessed Covid deaths.

Indians spent most of April under one of the world’s strictest lockdowns, but cases kept crawling up. From little over a thousand, India’s cumulative Covid case count went up to over 33,000 by April-end. The death toll also crossed the 1,000-mark in April. By the end of the month, Sikkim, Nagaland, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep were the only ones yet to report cases.

Cases breached the one-lakh threshold in May. The month also saw cumulative deaths cross the 5,000-mark. But even by the end of the month, 12 states and UTs, including Ladakh, Tripura, Puducherry, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Sikkim, Manipur and Mizoram were yet to report their first deaths.

But Covid unleashed its full force during the first phase of unlocking in June and cases raced from 1.8 lakh to 5.6 lakh over the course of the month. Cumulative deaths, too, rose from 5,164 on May 31 to 16,893 on June 30. The rapid increase in both cases and deaths continued in July and August. From over 5 lakh by June-end, cases rose to more than 35 lakh by the end of August.

The silver lining was that the otherwise grim months of July and August showed a glimpse of what lay beyond the peak of cases. Tamil Nadu was the first state to peak. The daily average of new cases touched 6,803 on July 30 and hasn’t crossed that mark again. Bihar also saw its highest daily case tally on August 15.

Eighteen states and UTs reported their maximum daily average of cases in September. Among the larger states, Andhra Pradesh saw its peak at 10,500 cases on September 2. Other major states like Maharashtra (22,149), UP (6,581), Odisha (4,272), Chhattisgarh (3,282), Assam (2,875), Telangana (2,718), Punjab (2,639), Haryana (2,566), and MP (2,523) reached their peak daily cases in September. India reached its peak on September 17, when the daily average touched 93,199 cases.

There has been a steady decline in daily cases since September, and by October-end it appeared that 29 states and UTs were past their peaks.

The daily average of cases is over 5,000 for Kerala and more than 2,000 for Maharashtra and West Bengal now. The average ranges between 1,000 and 2,000 for Chhattisgarh, UP, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, MP, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Judging from the overall trends since September, it seems that the worst is over.