Dharamshala, 3^rd August: Fresh Covid-19 cases in India increased week over week for the first time in 12 weeks since the second wave peaked in early May, perhaps signaling the start of a new wave of the pandemic in the country. The current rise, however, is confined to Kerala and, to a lesser extent, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In the week ending Sunday (July 26-August 1), India registered just over 2.86 lakh new cases, up 7.5 percent over the previous week’s total of 2.66 lakh. For the first time since the second wave peaked on May 3-9, weekly cases in the country have increased. Even though the decline had slowed to 1.4 percent, the drop in cases had remained until last week.

Kerala, the pandemic’s current epicenter in India, reported nearly 1.4 lakh cases this week, up 26.5 percent from the previous week’s tally of 1.1 lakh. With a daily average of 20,000 new cases, the state accounted for nearly half (49%) of all new cases in the country in the last seven days. Kerala reported 20,728 cases on Sunday, the sixth consecutive day with a daily count of more than 20,000. The weekly case count in Tamil Nadu remained unchanged from the previous week, with 13,090 instances, compared to 13,095 the week before. This reverses the state’s downward trend in case numbers, which had been in place for nearly nine weeks. For the fourth day in a row, the daily case count in Tennessee has increased modestly, rising from 1,756 on Wednesday to 1,990 on Sunday.

On the plus side, Maharashtra’s weekly statistics dropped by 6.2 percent, following a 10% drop the week before. This week, the state recorded 45,272 new cases, compared to 48,253 the week before. The number of cases in the northeast, another area where there has been a surge, appeared to be decreasing this week. Active cases in the country have increased by nearly 14,000 in the last six days, in line with the growth in infections. Around a week ago, the number of active users fell below 4 lakh, but by Sunday, it had climbed up to near 4.15 lakh. On Sunday, India recorded nearly 40,000 new cases for the sixth day in a row. The total for the day was 40,800. On that particular day, 418 people died. India has recorded 3,805 new deaths in the last week, down 44% from the previous week’s toll of 6,848.

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