Data Focus . India records fewer daily fatalities in the second wave of Covid-19

The second wave of Covid infections has been surging globally akin to the situation in March last year. But the silver lining is that the number of daily confirmed cases and fatalities are far lower than last year’s peaks in India, and across the world.

Fewer daily confirmed cases

The average of the daily confirmed cases of the last seven days in March 2021 in India stood at 56,213, which is 43 per cent lower than the country’s peak of 97,860 infections in a single day, in September 2020.

India is, however, faring worse than other countries with the highest number of cumulative cases such as US, France and Russia, where the daily cases are over 65 per cent lower than last year’s peak. Only Brazil seems to be in a very dire situation with current number of daily cases 9 per cent above last year’s peak.

For the 7-day average, the daily infections from March 22-28 this year has been considered for the analysis.

For the top five States with the highest number of confirmed cases in India as well, daily cases being registered currently are lower than their last year’s peaks, except for Maharashtra.

Maharashtra continues to be a hotspot for new infections — the number of daily confirmed cases (as an average of the last seven days) is 34 per cent higher than its last year’s peak in September.

But in rest of the States such as Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the daily infections are much lower than their respective peaks in 2020. Kerala’s average of daily cases of the last seven days, for instance, was 83 per cent lower than its peak of 11,755 infections in a day, in October. Similarly, Karnataka’s and Andhra Pradesh’s averages were 78 per cent and 93 per cent lower than their last year’s peaks.

Fewer daily fatalities

A similar trend can be observed in the daily fatality numbers as well. The average of the daily fatality numbers of the last seven days for all the top five States was lower than their 2020’s peak numbers. For instance, Maharashtra’s average number of daily fatalities for the last seven days stood at 112, which is 92 per cent lower than its peak of 1,409 fatalities in a day, in June. Similarly, Andhra Pradesh’s and Tamil Nadu’s daily fatalities were 98 per cent lower than their corresponding peaks last year.

For India overall as well, daily fatalities were 87 per cent lower than its peak of 2,004 fatalities on a day, in June, last year.

This holds true for countries such as the US, France and Russia too. The average of the daily deceased in the last seven days for the US was 74 per cent lower than its peak of 3,729 fatalities in a day recorded in December. Likewise, France’s and Russia’s numbers were also 77 per cent and 39 per cent lower than their 2020’s peaks. However, the number of fatalities in Brazil has been surging like the number of new infections in the country – the average of the last seven days shows that the daily fatalities are 52 per cent higher than last year’s peak.

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