All-India cases cross 20,000-mark; Gujarat sees spike in urban centres

New Delhi: The number of Covid-19 cases in India has shot past the 20,000-mark, with urban centres in Gujarat reporting a spurt in numbers.

Till 5 pm on Wednesday, Gujarat had 2,033 active cases, including 13 patients on ventilator support. Gujarat is now second to Maharashtra in the number of Covid-19 cases.

Even when Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu were seeing a spike in Covid-19 positive cases, Gujarat numbers were in check. When the three states were seeing a spike starting April 3, Gujarat was reporting 8-10 cases daily.


Data analysed by ET shows that as on April 10, Delhi occupied the num-ber two spot with 927 cases. At that time, Gujarat was at the 10th place among states, reporting just 326 cases.

The doubling rate of Gujarat the time taken by a state to double its tally of Covid-19 cases — worsened over the past three days. In early April, data between April 1 and April 7 showed the doubling rate of the state to be six days.

However, Gujarat’s doubling rate has narrowed to less than four days. On April 15, Gujarat reported 775 cases and in four days it had more than doubled to 1,743 by April 19.

Wednesday is the first time in two weeks that Delhi has been overtaken in numbers. However, Tamil Nadu has shown good progress in curbing its Covid-19 spike.

Delhi’s test positivity has fallen from 10% to 8% now. Test positivity percentage is one of the key factors in gauging the spread of an infectious disease.

Even Tamil Nadu’s test positivity percentage has fallen from 9.2% on April 7 to 3% on April 15.