People wait with empty cooking gas cylinders to have it exchanged with refilled ones in Kohima, Nagaland, Friday, July 10, 2020. (AP Photo: Yirmiyan Arthur)

India Coronavirus Cases: While most of the attention India’s fight against novel Coronavirus is understandably directed at states like Maharashtra, Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh, which have very high caseloads, what has been of equal concern is the fact that the disease has become quite widespread in the relatively smaller states as well.

Goa, Tripura, Manipur, Puducherry, Ladakh, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Daman and Diu, all have significantly large number of Coronavirus cases, and in some of these, the numbers are rising at rapid pace. Andaman and Nicobar Islands has the least number of cases in India, and there too, 221 people have so far been infected. Lakshadweep is the only region now that still does not have a single infected person.

Goa now has over 4,000 cases, while Tripura has close to 3,500. Manipur and Puducherry have more than 2,000 each, while Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh have about a 1,000 each. Even Daman and Diu has close to 800 cases.

None of these states have crowded metropolises which are considered fertile grounds for the spread of novel Coronavirus. Most of them have low population and population densities, and very few urban centres. The reasons for the spread of the disease here are therefore slightly different from those that triggered it in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and other big cities. The first phase of spread in these states was blamed on migrant workers coming in when the movement restrictions were relaxed in the first week of May. There is a lot of lateral spread happening after that.

While their caseloads still look insignificant in front of the big states, it can be overwhelming for their limited health infrastructure. The silver lining, however, is that except for a few states like Goa and Puducherry, the number of Coronavirus-related deaths in these regions has been quite low. Goa has seen 28 deaths till now, while Puducherry has had 31. Chandigarh, which has 780 cases, has seen the deaths of 13 people. But the death figures in Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Daman and Diu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Meghalaya, Mizoram are all in either single digits or none at all.

The number of new cases every day since July 1.

Meanwhile, the number of new infections from across the country jumped to almost 46,000 on Wednesday. That means more than 12.38 lakh people have so far been found to be infected with the virus in India, out of which 7,82 lakh have already recovered. The actual number of infections, including those who have been detected, could be much higher, as recent serological surveys in Delhi and Mumbai have indicated.

Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday reported more than 6,000 new cases to take its total caseload to over 64,000 now. Only Maharashtra has ever reported more than 6,000 cases in a single day. Even Tamil Nadu or Karnataka, two states with large caseloads and a recent history of big surges, have never crossed that number. The case number in Andhra Pradesh is now growing at almost 9 per cent every day.

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Top ten states with maximum caseload:

Tamil Nadu did come close on Wednesday, though, with over 5,800 new cases, a big jump from the numbers it had been reporting in recent days. For close to a month, Tamil Nadu had been detecting between 3,500 and 4,800 new cases every day. As a result, its growth rate (seven-day compounded daily growth rate) had fallen below three per cent. Wednesday’s jump could a result of data reconciliation exercise happening in the state. At least, that is what led to the addition of 518 deaths to the state tally on Wednesday. The state said 400 of these were unreported deaths from previous days that have been discovered due to an ongoing exercise to match and clean up data.

Tamil Nadu has recorded the third highest number of Coronvirus-related deaths in the country, after Maharashtra and Delhi. Maharashtra has registered over 12,500 deaths till now, while Delhi has had more than 3,700. The overall death toll in the country is close to 30,000 now.

Another state that contributed to Wednesday’s sharp rise in India’s numbers was Assam which reported more than 2,600 new cases, which is quite high by its standards. Along with Bihar and Kerala, Assam is one of the fastest growing states outside the top ten.

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