India coronavirus numbers, August 13: UP, Bihar, Bengal and Assam biggest contributors to daily numbers

Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal already host more than 1 lakh people who have so far been infected with the virus, while Bihar is getting there. Assam, with about 68,000 cases is some distance away, but it too has been growing at a fast pace.

Each of these four states have been clocking daily growth rates of more than 4 per cent since July, when the national growth rate has been declining steadily, and now stands around 2.8 per cent. Since the start of July, the infection numbers in Bihar and Assam have grown by more than eight times, while in Uttar Pradesh it has increased by five times. West Bengal has seen its numbers rise by more than four times during this period. The death numbers in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have increased proportionately, and both the states have counted more than 2,200 deaths till now. But in Bihar and Assam, the death counts are relatively low. Bihar has recorded just 474 deaths till now, while in Assam, the number of deaths is 161.

In the third rung of states are Odisha and Kerala, and now, also Punjab, which has been seeing a relatively high growth after a long time. Odisha now has more than 50,000 confirmed cases of the disease, with most of them concentrated in Ganjam and Khurda districts, where the spread had started with the influx of migrant workers in the first week of May.

Kerala, which had offered a lot of hope during the first three months of the epidemic in the way it had been able to contain the spread, has been adding relatively large number of cases for the last one month and a half. Its confirmed case count is now heading towards 40,000, and growing well above the national growth rate.

Punjab had seen its daily numbers dip to single digits for most of June and July, but the disease spread seems to be picking up again. In the last one week, the state has added more than 7,000 cases, and its confirmed case count now is touching 27,000.

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The daily rise in Covid-19 cases in India

On Wednesday, close to 67,000 new cases were discovered across the country, the highest so far, and the confirmed infections now are just a shade below 24 lakh. About 17 lakh of these, or about 71 per cent, have recovered from the disease, while the death toll crossed 47,000 on Wednesday. India now has the fourth highest death count in the world, after the United States, Brazil and Mexico.

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Top ten states with maximum caseload:

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