Explained: Coronavirus numbers still small, but Bihar signalling a surge

Coronavirus (COVID-19): Bihar had been adding fresh cases mostly in single digits till April 19 but has seen its numbers get doubled in the last four days.

Coronavirus India update: Maharashtra and Gujarat continued to be the main drivers of the increase in India’s numbers. (Express Photo: Amit Mehra)

Coronavirus (COVID-19): Though its numbers are still relatively small, Bihar seems to be warming up for a rapid surge in novel Coronavirus cases in the coming days. On Friday, it added 53 new cases, taking its tally to a total of 223. The state had been adding fresh cases mostly in single digits till April 19 but has seen its numbers get doubled in the last four days.

After a record-breaking day on Thursday, the number of new cases from across the country saw a dip on Friday. A total of 1376 new cases were reported on Friday, significantly lower than the 1697 that were discovered the previous day. India now has 24,350 people who have tested positive for the novel Coronavirus at some point of time since the outbreak began. More than 4,800 of them have recovered from the disease and already discharged from the hospital.

State (Top 10)	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths
Maharashtra	6817	390	301
Gujarat	2815	191	117
Delhi	2514	138	50
Rajasthan	1971	70	32
Madhya Pradesh	1846	159	92
Tamil Nadu	1755	72	20
Uttar Pradesh	1621	111	24
Telangana	983	13	25
Andhra Pradesh	955	62	29
West Bengal	488	11	18

Maharashtra and Gujarat continued to be the main drivers of the increase in India’s numbers. On Friday, Maharashtra reported 390 new cases, almost half of what it did the previous day. The state now has 6817 cases of infections, of which 957 have recovered. Gujarat, on the other hand, added 191 new cases on Friday, to reach a tally of 2815. The number of deaths in the state also continued to rise steadily. On Friday, the state reported 15 more deaths. The state now has recorded a total of 127 deaths, the highest after Maharashtra, with Ahmedabad alone accounting for 83 of these deaths. Ahmedabad now has more deaths than any other city in India except Mumbai.

Here are the cities with most deaths:

Mumbai	178
Ahmedabad	83
Pune	67
Indore	55
Delhi	50

The total death count was inching towards 750-figure mark on Friday night. Maharashtra alone accounts for more than 300 of them.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal government revealed that so far 57 Coronavirus positive persons had die in the state. But it maintained that the virus was not the cause of death in a majority of these cases. An expert committee formed by the state government, after conducting an audit of all the deaths, has concluded that only 18 of these could be attributed to the virus. “The remaining 39 deaths were due to severe co-morbid conditions which were the immediate cause of death, and COVID-19 was the incidental finding,” the state government said in a statement.

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West Bengal was the first state to appoint an expert committee to assess whether the deaths of COVID-19 patients could be attributed to the virus or were caused by other reasons. The idea has been caught up with many other states now, and there is great reluctance to share information about the dead. (Don’t miss from Explained: Why it is important to define deaths)

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Mumbai, the city with maximum COVID-19 related deaths, has stopped releasing the list of dead, and decided to conduct an audit of all deaths of Coronavirus-positive patients. Delhi had followed suit, and even Punjab have also decided to set up an audit committee. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana rarely share any information about the dead in their states. Gujarat and Karnataka are the only states that are transparently revealing all information about their dead.