Active Covid cases hit one-month low, shows health ministry data

India on Sunday logged 290 fresh cases of Covid, while the number of active cases of infections stood at 2,059, the lowest national tally in a month, according to the health ministry.

On December 20, 2023, the country logged 2,311 cases.

The reason for this phenomenon is due to the high rate of discharges. Sanjith Saseedharan, consultant and head, critical care, S L Raheja Hospital, said the country's recovery rate stands at more than 98 per cent, and almost all infected individuals are recuperating with simple symptomatic treatment.

“Only a small number of cases require hospitalisations, with the majority of them needing hospital care are individuals with severe comorbidities,” he explained. 

India logged in 305 fresh cases on Thursday, a significant drop from 500 to 600 daily cases reported last week.

Addressing the current dip in active cases, Manoj Goel, director, Pulmonology, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, said this was due to the effective public health interventions and increased immunity through an increase in vaccinations. 

Tushar Tayal, consultant, Department of Internal Medicine, CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram, said that as the temperature starts improving, and people have become more aware by following basic precautionary measures such as social distancing, masking and frequent hand sanitization because of which incidences of flu-like illness have begun to come down.

India witnessed a spike in the number of Covid cases after the detection of its first JN.1 case on December 17 last year.

Since then, the number of cases has risen in India from 45,004,816 on December 17 to 45,023,751 on January 21, an increase of 18,890 Covid infections in one month. 

West Bengal leads the list of states with most active cases at 512, with the state accounting for around 25 per cent of all active cases in India. Karnataka (483 cases), Maharashtra (439 cases) and Kerala (182 cases) are the next worst affected states, according to data updated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The country recorded 126 deaths across seventeen states and union territories since December 17. Of these, Kerala witnessed 52 deaths, followed by Karnataka with 32 deaths, Maharashtra with 12 deaths, Chhattisgarh with 3 deaths, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh with 2 deaths each, with the rest reporting one casualty each.