SHILLONG: Amid a staggering rise in COVID-19 cases in the country, the Northeastern states of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim and the Union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands have recorded the lowest number of cases, according to data released by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) at 8 am on Wednesday.
On the other end of the spectrum, six major states in India have recorded more than one lakh novel coronavirus cases each since the outbreak of the pandemic, with the country logging over 19 lakh cases and close to 40,000 deaths so far.
Maharashtra has the highest number of cases, followed by Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The last is a recent addition to the states climbing up the grim mark of over a lakh cases.
Maharashtra, with a population of over 11 crore, not only accounts for the highest number of confirmed cases at 4,57,956, but it has also witnessed the most number of deaths at 16142. It has a recovery rate of over 62 per cent.
The situation in Tamil Nadu is also grim as it has logged 2,68,285 cases and 4349 deaths till now. The silver lining, however, is that the number of recovered cases in the southern state are four times the active cases. It has a recovery rate of over 76 per cent.
Andhra Pradesh with 1,76,333 confirmed cases is inching towards the two-lakh mark and has logged 1,604 deaths. It is recording 10,000 cases daily and is among the states with fastest growing number of cases. Neighbouring Karnataka has recorded 1,45,830 cases and 2,704 deaths.
Delhi, on the other hand, is now witnessing a remarkable turnaround. It is now recording less than almost 1,000 daily cases and has the highest recovery rate in the country of nearly 90 per cent.
1,39,156 people have been infected and 4033 people have died till now. There are less than 10,000 active cases (in the capital city, while the number of those recovered is over 12 times more, at 1,25,226.
On Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh crossed the mark of one lakh cases, recording 41,222 active cases, 57,271 recovered cases and 1,817 deaths.
The situation is quite better in Meghalaya which has a confirmed number of 917 cases of which 582 are active. 330 people have recovered in the state while five people have died, according to the MoHFW data.
However, data released by the state Health department on Wednesday evening puts the number of active cases in the state at 609 with 339 recoveries. The total number of confirmed cases stood at 953.
Sikkim’s story is even better with 783 confirmed cases of which 483 are active while 299 people have recovered. The state has recorded only one death so far, the Ministry data shows.
As far as the number of cases is concerned, Mizoram has the best figures with 504 confirmed cases of which 222 are active while 282 people have recovered in the state.
Incidentally, Mizoram is the only state in the country with zero COVID deaths so far, the MoHFW data says.
On the brighter side, India recorded the highest-ever single day recoveries in the last 24 hours. With a sharp increase of 51,706 COVID-19 patients recovering, the recovery rate has reached a new high of 67.19 per cent. The recoveries till now total up to 12,82,215, more than twice the active cases. (With IANS inputs from Delhi)
AT A GLANCE
BEST-PERFORMING STATES/UTs
Mizoram 222 282 0 504
Sikkim 483 299 1 783
Meghalaya 582 330 5 917
Andaman and N.I. 639 277 12 928
WORST-PERFORMING STATES/UTs
States Active Recovered Death Confirmed
Maharashtra 142458 299356 16142 4,57,956
Tamil Nadu 55152 208784 4349 2,68,285
Andhra Pradesh 79104 95625 1604 1,76,333
Karnataka 73854 69272 2704 1,45,830
Delhi 9897 125226 4033 1,39,156
Uttar Pradesh 41222 57271 1817 1,00,310
(Source: MoHFW as on as August 5, 2020 at 8:00 am)