Eighteen States and Union Territories have “shown improvement” in containing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Odisha and Kerala leading the pile, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday.
These were States with a ‘doubling time’ (an indicator of how quickly cases increase) of more than 8.5 days and thus “above” the national average of 7.5 days. This was due to effective measures taken to contain the spread of the virus, Joint Secretary in the Ministry Lav Agrawal said at the daily briefing. Kerala has led the States with a doubling rate of 72 days followed at a considerable distance by Odisha at 39.8 days, according to the numbers.
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Longer doubling times have helped stagger the burden on healthcare facilities and improve recovery.
The Ministry confirmed 17,655 cases with 14,255 active infections and 559 deaths on Monday.
However, the Ministry’s doubling numbers eclipse the fact that these States account for only about 7,000 of India’s overall COVID-19 count. On the other hand, just five States with a doubling rate less than the national average account for about 10,000 or about 60% of the case-load.
As of Monday, Maharashtra had the highest number of cases at 4,400 and it reported a doubling of cases in six days. Gujarat’s 1,800 cases had doubled in 4.5 days and Madhya Pradesh with 1,407 cases had a dou