Coronavirus numbers explained: Cases likely to see sharp rise in coming days

Coronavirus (COVID-19): Large crowds were seen at many places on Monday and physical distancing norms were largely ignored. In many states, the movement of migrant workers is also resulting in similar situations.

4 min readPuneMay 5, 2020 12:55 PM IST First published on: May 5, 2020 at 10:35 AM IST

The overall tally in the country stood at 46,390 at the end of Monday.

If the scenes on the first day of the third phase of lockdown are any indication, the number of Coronavirus infections are likely to rise sharply in the coming days. Large crowds were seen at many places, not just in front of liquor shops, and physical distancing norms were largely ignored. In many states, the movement of migrant workers is also resulting in similar situations.

Already, India is recording sharp increases in its numbers every day. On Monday, a total of 3852 new infections were discovered, partly because Maharashtra confirmed a large number pending test results from previous days. The overall tally in the country stood at 46,390 at the end of Monday.

Maharashtra, which has the maximum number of cases in the country, reported 1567 cases on Monday, more than half of which were confirmations of tests from earlier days. Tamil Nadu recorded its highest single-day rise till date, with an addition of 527 cases, which took its tally to 3550, while Delhi and Gujarat added more than 300 cases each.

Meanwhile, West Bengal has revised its Coronavirus numbers, and revealed a much higher number of cases than was previously known. On Monday, West Bengal also changed its reporting format and started giving out much more information about the pandemic than it was previously doing. The state has reported that it had 1259 confirmed cases of Coronavirus. Till a day earlier, this number was less than 900 though the state had stopped giving out information on total number of cases and was only reporting new cases.

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State	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths
Maharashtra	14541	1567	583
Gujarat	5804	376	319
Delhi	4898	349	69
Tamil Nadu	3550	527	31
Rajasthan	2998	175	77
Madhya Pradesh	2942	105	165
Uttar Pradesh	2766	121	50
Andhra Pradesh	1650	67	33
West Bengal	1259	275	133
Punjab	1232	130	23

The state has also revised its death numbers, and now includes all the deaths of people who had tested positive, not just those who did not have any pre-existing illnesses. As a result the number of deaths in the state is now 133. Till a day earlier, this number was less than 50. According to the latest information, 87 of these deaths have happened in Kolkata and another 17 in the twin city of Howrah. Only Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Pune have registered more deaths.

In the first four days of this month, India has added more than 10,000 cases of novel Coronavirus. Speaking at the Adda event organised by The Indian Express, Dr Randeep Guleria, director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, said the fact that the Coronavirus growth curve had not showed a downward trend despite the lockdown was a matter of concern. He said the lockdown did help in flattening the growth curve, but did not make it bend down.

“That is a cause for concern. That is why the next four to six weeks will be very, very important because the lockdown cannot be there for ever. The ideal, the dream, would be to have zero cases. But I don’t see that happening. The number of cases is still increasing everyday. But the rise of the curve is not so sharp that we cannot handle it,” Guleria said.