India coronavirus numbers explained: Why cases came down on Monday

Migrants aboard a bus in Barasat, North 24 Pargana, West Bengal (Express Photo: Shashi Ghosh)

India Coronavirus (Covid-19) Cases: Monday saw a sharp decline in the number of new cases of novel Coronavirus infections, and the reason is not very clear right now. Jammu and Kashmir, which had reported more than 600 cases on Sunday, came down to its usual level and reported 198 cases on Monday. Slightly fewer cases were reported in Delhi and Maharashtra as well.

But the big difference was made by a reduction in the number of unassigned cases. These are the cases that no states were owning up, and these had been rising rapidly over the last few weeks. By Sunday, this number had gone up to 8,605. On Monday, however, this number reduced to 7,837, meaning at least 768 of these cases have finally been assigned to some state or the other. But it is not clear which states have these been assigned to. None of the states have shown any unusual rise in their numbers on Monday.

For the last four days, more than 10,000 cases were being detected every day in the country.

As a result, the number of new cases on Monday came down to just over 8,600, a level that has not been seen in the last week. For the last four days, more than 10,000 cases were being detected every day in the country. And before that, between 9,000 and 10,000.

The unassigned cases had started appearing in the middle of May, after some restrictions on movement of people had been lifted. As more and more migrants began to test positive, some of them were not being added in any of the state numbers, neither in their native state, nor in the state where they might have tested positive. This number had risen rapidly in the last few weeks, and Monday was the first instance when this number saw a decline.

Delhi, which had been reporting between 1,300 and 1,500 cases every day, found just about 1,000 cases on Monday, and that too helped in bringing down the total number. So did Jammu and Kashmir, which had reported an unusual spike on Sunday.

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Top ten states with maximum caseload

With the movement of people now allowed, and several economic activities restarting, large number of new cases are getting detected across the country in the last few days, not just in the worst-affected states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi or some others.

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Assam, Tripura, Kerala, Goa, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, are all active states right now, reporting a significant number of new cases every day. As a result, the geographical spread of the disease in the country is much more evenly spread than earlier, and this process is only likely to consolidate in the coming days.