Covid-19: 7-day average deaths up 66% in India, cases dip after 13-day rise

NEW DELHI: For the first time in 14 days, daily cases of Covid-19 in India decreased on Monday due to lower testing and detections over the weekend but deaths from the virus continued to creep up.
India had recorded 1,66,497 fresh cases of the coronavirus on Monday, with data from Tripura yet to be made available till close to midnight. Monday’s cases are expected to be 7.5% lower than the previous day’s tally of 1,80,078, as per TOI’s Covid database.These results came out of a 14% fall in testing on Sunday as compared with the preceding day.

Prior to Monday, daily Covid cases in the country had risen for 13 successive days since December 27 — the longest period of sustained growth since the beginning of the pandemic. The daily case count has invariably fallen every Monday, due to a drop in testing and staff shortages over the weekend, the sole exception being January 3.India reported 129 deaths from the coronavirus on Monday (although the overall toll rose by 276 due to the addition of deaths from earlier dates). This was the fourth consecutive day when the death toll was 120 or more.
In the last seven days, an average of 116 deaths have been reported per day. This is 66% higher than the average of 70 in the preceding seven days, pointing to a slow but clear rise in fatalities in the third wave although the overall numbers so far remain much lower than the previous two waves of the pandemic in the country.
Maharashtra reported 33,470 fresh cases on Monday, a 25% drop from the previous day’s count of 44,388. Mumbai registered 13,648 cases, a steep 30% below the previous day's numbers as the case count in the city fell for the third day running.

Daily numbers also fell in Bengal (19,286 from 24,287 on Sunday), Delhi (19,166 from 22,751), Kerala (5,797 from 6,238), Andhra Pradesh (984 from 1,257). Other states where numbers dipped marginally include Karnataka, Gujarat, Bihar and Uttarakhand.
However, cases continued to rise in several other states led by Assam, which saw daily numbers more than double to 2,198 from 988 on Sunday. Other states include Tamil Nadu (13,990 cases on Monday), Uttar Pradesh (8,334), Rajasthan (6,095), Haryana (5,736), Chhattisgarh (4,120) and Madhya Pradesh (2,317).
Kerala reported 19 fresh deaths from the virus followed by Delhi (17), Bengal (16), Tamil Nadu (11), Maharashtra (8), Punjab (7), Haryana and Uttarakhand (5 each). Over the past few days, fatalities have risen in Delhi, Bengal, Punjab, Haryana, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Mizoram, apart from a few others.