India coronavirus cases: The last few days have seen an almost simultaneous surge in novel coronavirus cases in many parts of the country. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, Odisha, Telangana have all begun reporting many more cases than they were doing a week ago. In some states, like Telangana, Karnataka or Odisha, this could be attributed, at least partially, to the increase in the number of tests being conducted. But in many other states, there has not been any significant increase in the testing numbers. The most pronounced rise is being seen in Maharashtra, where more than 16,000 new cases were detected on Saturday. Before the current spell, the state was discovering less than 12,000 cases a day. Similarly, Andhra Pradesh had been showing signs of a decline after a very rapid rise in July. But in the last five days, the daily numbers in the state has gone back to levels, more than 10,000 cases a day, that were seen when the state was experiencing peak growth. Andhra Pradesh will most likely overtake Tamil Nadu on Sunday, and become the state with the second highest caseload in the country after Maharashtra. But the most interesting trend seems to be unfolding in the national capital. Delhi had almost begun celebrating after a remarkable turnaround in the situation since the last week of June. For almost one and a half months, the daily cases had continued to decline consistently, and fallen below 1,000, the growth rate had dropped to well below one per cent, and more patients were being recovering every day than were reporting sick. It almost seemed as if the epidemic had attained its peak and the downhill journey had started. But in the last ten days, Delhi is witnessing a turnaround once again. The trend has continued long enough to be dismissed as an aberration. On Saturday, close to 2,000 cases were discovered in the city, a level that has not been seen since July 10. The growth rate has begun to rise and reached almost one per cent a day. There have been some suggestions that the start of the return of migrant working populations from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh might be behind the recent spike. With Metro rail services starting after a week, and gatherings of 100 being allowed in latest relaxation of lockdown rules, the infections are expected to go further northwards, at least in the short term. The Delhi government has already announced that it would increasing its testing capacity more to meet the challenge, a strategy that seemed to have worked in slowing down the infection spread the previous time. Despite the growth, Delhi is still likely to be overtaken by Pune, the city which has been contributing the maximum number of cases in the country, within a couple of days. Pune right now has more than 1.69 lakh people who have been infected with the virus at some point of time, while Delhi is only marginally ahead at 1.71 lakh. Almost four thousand new cases were detected in Pune on Saturday. 📣 Express Explained is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@ieexplained) and stay updated with the latest Top ten states with maximum caseload: STATE TOTAL POSITIVE NEW CASES TOTAL RECOVERIES DEATHS Maharashtra 764,281 16,286 554,711 24,439 Tamil Nadu 415,590 6,352 355,727 7,137 Andhra Pradesh 414,164 10,548 312,687 3,796 Karnataka 327,076 8,324 235,128 5,502 Uttar Pradesh 219,457 5,633 162,741 3,356 Delhi 171,366 1,954 152,922 4,404 West Bengal 156,766 3,012 127,644 3,126 Bihar 132,935 2,087 115,074 679 Telangana 123,090 2,924 90,988 818 Assam 103,794 2,426 82,510 289 Odisha also crossed the one lakh mark on Saturday, the 11th state in the country to do so. It detected more than 3,000 new cases for the first time. In the last one week, the state has added more than 22,000 new infections. The total number of infected people in the country crossed the 3.5 million mark on Saturday, with the discovery of almost 79,000 new cases, the highest so far. For the last four days, India has been reporting more than 75,000 new cases. The death count has reached 63,500. Also in Explained | What to look for in the GDP data to be released on Monday
