COVID-19 is a bio-war against humanity that has its origin in Wuhan, China that started way back in December 2019, declared as “Pandemic” on 11 March 2020 after it infected approximately 1,118,245 people across the world as on 3 April 2020. India is also grappling to combat this virus spread by adopting various measures from time to time including lockdowns and border shutdowns.
A major outbreak in the country is likely to have a far-reaching effect if not contained at this stage. As the nation gets ready to combat the outbreak, let us have a look at what the data reveals on the pandemic in relation to the Indian geography.
A graphical representation of Date wise COVID-19 cumulative reported cases
source:www.covid19india.org
India reported its first COVID-19 case on 30th January 2020. As of 3rd April 2020, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has confirmed a total of 2902 reported cases (Source:https://www.covid19india.org/). Although the testing rates are comparatively lower as compared to other countries in the world. As per reports, the COVID-19 infection rate in India is reported to be 1.7, lower than the rate in the worst affected countries.
India is witnessing a steady increase in the number of cumulative reported cases. From 3 March 2020 (6 reported cases) to 4th March 2020, there has been a sudden spike in the numbers from a single-digit 6 to double-digit 28. India continued reporting 2-3 cases per day which is much lower than the daily reports of other countries. On 14th March 2020, India COVID-19 reports crossed 100 when the union government declared the pandemic as a “notified disaster” under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a ‘Janata curfew’ on 19th March, during a 30-minute live telecast, asking all citizens to observe “Janta Curfew” on 22 March from 7 AM to 9 PM post the steep increase in the reported cases. Following this one-day lockdown, many states & union territories started implementing state-wise lockdown till 31 March. A 21-day nationwide lockdown was announced on 24th March by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a preventive measure for combating the outbreak. The outbreak has been declared an epidemic considering the growing number of reported cases and when the transmission escalated from 24th March to 3rd April 2020. Ever since then, the numbers are alarmingly increasing in the country.
State/UT wise cumulative reported cases
Inspite of the lockdown in place, the total number of reported cases is increasing almost every day. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu & Delhi are witnessing the worst COVID-19 reported cases 490, 411 & 386 respectively as on 3rd April 2020. New Delhi is expected to get affected by more numbers in the next 1-2 days. The surge in the numbers is due to participation by the people in a religious congregation in Delhi in early March.
About. 1830 people across India attended this event which included 281 foreigners who stayed put there till 8 March. Many people who attended the event started showing symptoms in late March which is when the news of this event came into light. In Delhi, around 53 people have tested COVID-19 whereas Tamil Nadu reported more than 190 cases in a single day followed by Assam, Arunachal Pradesh that has reported 5 & 1 new cases each. Telangana government has declared 6 deaths and all of them have been to this event.
Date wise death reports
State/UT wise death reports
India has confirmed 68 deaths as of 3 April 2020. The number of deaths increased two-folds in the last 4 days crossing 40 plus. Maharashtra has witnessed the highest death counts among all other states/UTs touching 26 as of 3 April 2020. People who died of COVID-19 in India had other underlying chronic diseases along with coronavirus. A total number of 229 patients have recovered so far which brings the total active cases to 2673.
Two of the major challenges for the government is trying to overcome is the scope of tracking people with international, national travel history and the supply of medical essentials like ventilators, masks,hand-sanitizers, ventilators, COVID specialized ICU units, etc.
In a study earlier this week of data from 332 reported cases and population statistics from data.un.org, the majority of infections were in the 20-29-year age category amounting to 28.9%. This group had imported cases, carrying from the infection from traveling abroad.
The 30-39-year category amounted to 20.5% that also had a lot of imported cases.
While the central government has improved the health indicators, immunizations, etc, and some states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka have a comparatively better health system than the other states, it is important to contain the spread and impose diligent measures for the same. While social distancing, stay home are imposed, it becomes equally important for citizens of all age groups to take responsibility to provide support to the nation in terms of combating the outbreak by following the same while healthcare workers are enhancing their approaches to contain the virus spread.