1 lakh Covid deaths in India, over 38,000 of them in Maharashtra

India’s coronavirus-related deaths crossed the 1 lakh mark on Friday, three days after the global toll touched 1 million. This means India now accounts for nearly 10 per cent of the world’s Covid-19 deaths.

Maharashtra accounts for more than a third of India’s deaths, having recorded almost 38,000 fatalities so far. It also has a very high CFR of 2.67 per cent.

Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have recorded more than 9,000 deaths each – but their CFRs are in line with the national average, around 1.5 per cent.

Delhi, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have had more than 5,000 deaths each.

The country’s highest CFR is in Punjab – 3 per cent. The state has a relatively low caseload of 1.15 lakh, but nearly 3,500 deaths. Almost 2,000 deaths were reported in September, when cases rose by 60,000.

India’s tally of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) surged to 6,394,068 after 81,484 fresh infections and 1,095 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, the Union health ministry’s data showed.

The number of active cases of the coronavirus disease stands at 942,217 as India sustained its trend of maintaining active cases below the 1 million mark for the 11th successive day.

India posted 78,877 recoveries between Thursday and Friday morning from across the country. The country’s recoveries stand at 5,352,078 on Friday, taking the national recovery rate to 83.70%.

“The rise in total recovered cases has been steep. The last 10 lakh recoveries were added in just 12 days. 77% of the total recovered cases are recorded in 10 States/UTs,” the health ministry said in a release on Thursday.

Maharashtra has contributed the highest number to the total recovered cases followed by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, it had said.

The ministry had said on Thursday that 76% of the active cases are in 10 states and Union territories. “As on date, the active cases contribute only 14.90% to the positive caseload of the country,” it has said.

According to the ministry on Thursday, 76% of the new cases are concentrated in 10 states. Maharashtra contributed more than 18,000 to the new cases. Karnataka and Kerala, both contributed more than 8,000, it said. It also said that 82% of new deaths are reported from 10 states and Union territories. On Thursday, 40% of deaths reported were from Maharashtra with 481 deaths followed by Karnataka with 87 deaths.

India remains the second worst-hit country in the world after the United States as more than 34 million people have been infected by Sars-Cov-2, which causes the coronvirus disease, and 1,021,765 have been killed so far, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tracker.