40% of India's total Covid-19 deaths during a relentless second wave

Fatalities growing at double-digit rate, though there has been some let-up in the past few days

The second wave of Covid-19 has seen a significant rise in the number of recorded deaths, with the total toll since the pandemic hit India in 2020 crossing 250,000 this week. Around 40 per cent of these deaths have occurred since the beginning of March this year.

The daily death numbers show that India has more people dying of Covid-19 than in entire continents, according to tracker Our World in Data (see chart 1). Asia has over 5,600 daily Covid-19 deaths of which more than 4,000 are from India.

The national mortality rate, according to health ministry data, stands at 1.09 per cent. The government has said that the mortality in the hospitalised patients has remained the same at around 9.6 per cent in both the first and the second wave.

The rise in the number of those affected has meant that the weekly death toll is over 28,000 and growing at a double-digit rate, though there has been some let-up in the past few days (see chart 2).

On Wednesday (May 12), 74 per cent of new deaths were reported in 10 states. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties with 816 deaths followed by Karnataka, which reported 516 deaths.  Uttar Pradesh is next with 326 deaths. Karnataka continues to show a high growth in the number of weekly deaths, according to an analysis of data compiled by covid19india.org (see chart 3). Various reports have flagged under-reporting of deaths in many states. A study by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, health research centre at the University of Washington, estimated that India would see one million deaths from Covid-19 by August 1.