The death toll from Covid-19 in India almost doubled during the week ended Sunday even when a surge in cases began to slow down with infection to see a different shift from major cities.
India reported 2,680 deaths from viruses for a week (January 17-23), a 92% increase from the toll last week from 1,396.
The previous week had seen the increase in the same mortality even as in the absolute number of deaths remained low in the third wave so far compared to the previous two.
Meanwhile, exponential increase in cases seen in the previous three weeks slowed significantly.
Infection growth on Sunday-in the week slowed to 30%, down from 112% last week and more than 500% in the previous week.
This is the first week during the third wave when the percentage of growth drops to two digits.
However, with increasing cases, India recorded nearly 21.7 lakh new cases in a week, the fourth weekly tally since the pandemic began.
The last time the higher number of cases was recorded on May 10-16 last year, Sunday after the second wave peak in the country.
The slowdown in the covid surge was partly due to the decline in the cumulative case of eight largest cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad.
For the first time during the current wave, the city-together cities saw a drop in a case, from nearly 5.5 lakh in the previous week to around 5 lakh.