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The second wave

The second wave
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The Covid-19 threat is far from over. Experts have now warned of a much severe second wave as the regions that have witnessed spur in covid infections have already felt the severity.
Even as states with relatively smaller caseloads have been reporting a spurt in Covid cases, the crisis like situation in Delhi is proving the point that the second wave of infections can prove worse and overburden the healthcare infrastructure.
While fresh cases of coronavirus infections continue to remain stagnant — in the worst-affected states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, states like Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and even Himachal Pradesh have been seeing a significant rise in active cases.
Uttar Pradesh is the only one in the top 10 states with highest caseloads to have seen an increase in its active cases in the last two weeks, and that too only a nominal rise of less than 500.
While Delhi and Kerala continue to report the maximum number of new cases every day, even these two seem have left their peaks behind, and are now witnessing a decline in their active cases.
In absolute terms, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and even Himachal Pradesh are still reporting far lesser number of cases than Maharashtra, or some other top 10 states, but it is much more than what they were reporting earlier.
Sensing the urgency and the threat covid-19 is posing afresh, the Health Ministry has dispatched high-level teams to Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. A few days ago, similar teams were sent to Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Chhattisgarh as well.
Nationally, coronavirus cases are growing at a daily rate of 0.45 per cent. Amongst the ten states with maximum caseloads, only three – Delhi, Kerala and West Bengal — are currently growing faster than the national rate. On the other hand, 14 of the next 20 states have growth rates faster than the national growth.
Active cases in the country have been falling steadily for the last two months. It had peaked at 10.17 lakh on September 19, and has come down to about 4.4 lakh now. But two of the last three days has seen a small rise in active cases, thanks to the surge that is being seen in some of the states.
The biggest rise in active cases in the last two weeks has come in Rajasthan – an increase of more than 5,600 — followed by Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. In fact, on Saturday, Rajasthan reported more than 3,000 new cases in a day for the first time, and on Sunday, even higher number of cases, 3,260, were reported from the state.
Similarly, Himachal Pradesh, whose total caseload is less than 35,000, has been detecting an average of about 650 cases every day for the last two weeks. Before this month, it had never reported more than 460 cases in a day. On Saturday, the state found as many as 915 fresh cases. The active cases in the state have more than doubled, from about 3,000 to over 7,000, since the start of this month.
The abrupt rise in cases in a hilly region should act as a wakeup calls for us as winter has already set in Kashmir and the slide in temperature can lead to increased infections and transmissions.


KV Network

Kashmir Vision cover all daily updates for the newspaper

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