Southern surge: Covid spread faster in 4 south states

New Delhi/Hyderabad: During the last week, coronavirus numbers are being powered mainly by the surge in the four southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. All the four are now in the top 10 list of states with maximum caseload in the country, and now these the only four in the top 10 where the Covid-19 cases are growing at a rate faster than the national growth rate. While Maharashtra continues to contribute the maximum number of new cases every day, its rate of growth is still low.

At 3.40 per cent, it is well below the seven-day compounded daily growth rate of 3.54 per cent.

The four southern states, on the other hand, are contributing large numbers and have a high growth rate as well. In the last few days, Tamil Nadu has reported more than 28,000 new cases. The total number of infections in the state crossed the one-lakh mark on Friday. Karnataka and Telangana, the fastest growing states, have added more than 8,000 each. Andhra Pradesh has joined the race only in the last couple of days and has detected about 5,500 cases in the last one week.

The only exception to the southern dominance has been Kerala, which has seen the discovery of just over 1,000 cases in the last one week. By its own standards, however, Kerala has been growing quite fast. In fact, with a growth rate of 3.6 per cent it is currently growing faster than the country as a whole. The state now has a little less than 5,000 confirmed cases. But the number of deaths is very low. With just 24 deaths, the state has one of the lowest death rates in the country.

This is the first time since the outbreak began in March that the southern states are driving the national numbers in this way. Individual states in the south have been among the major drivers earlier. Initially, it was Kerala, then Andhra Pradesh for a brief while, and Tamil Nadu has been there for close to two months now. But right now, there is a surge in all the southern states, including Telangana.

Uttar Pradesh has been contributing large numbers every day, and so has West Bengal. After the spurt in the third week of June, Delhi has slowed down considerably, though, in absolute terms, it is still reporting more than 2,000 cases every day. Its growth rate, however, has fallen below 3 per cent. In the last one week, Delhi added more than 17,000 new cases.

Even relatively smaller states have significant caseloads now. Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand both now have more than 3,000 infections, while Jharkhand is getting there. The total number of infections has crossed 1,000 in Goa, Tripura, Manipur, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh as well, the last two states reaching there on Friday. Puducherry, with 824, cases is not very far behind. In fact, Meghalaya is the only state in the country now with less than 100 confirmed infections. Even Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sikkim crossed this mark on Friday.