New Delhi: On January 30, 2020 India had reported its first case of the novel coronavirus, nearly a year ago. Since then India has witnessed a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, peaking at August-September but now the caseload is on a 7-month low.
Now with two COVID-19 vaccines, India is staring at a possible clampdown of the pandemic which resulted in the loss of 1.5 lakh lives, caused major economic disruption and left millions of families without a livelihood.
Here’s a timeline of the COVID-19 caseload in India over the past 12 months:
January-February 2020: On January 30, 2020, the first case of coronavirus was registered in Kerala. Some students who returned from Wuhan in February were found positive, but the infection did not reach double digits.
March 2020 – On March 4, as many as 22 cases were recorde in India of which 14 were infected among a group of Italian tourists. On March 12, the first death from coronavirus was registered in the country. Tablighi Jamat’s event is being considered as the biggest super spreader event in Delhi in mid-March. The infection increased rapidly in states like UP, Bihar, Bengal. On March 25 lockdown was announced. By March 31, as many as 47 deaths and 1403 people had been infected.
April 2020: The number of cases in April increased nearly 23 times as compared to March. According to the graph shared by NDTV, on April 14 more than 1463 coronavirus cases were found in the country, who reached by April 30. By the end of April, the total deaths had risen to 1075.
May 2020: Despite lockdown, the number of cases continued to grow and on an average 6-7 thousand COIVD-19 numbers were reported daily. For the first time on May 5, more than 194 patients succumbed to the infection. On May 19, 110 days after the first case of coronavirus, the number of patients crossed one lakh.
June 2020: Unlocking of the nationwide clapmdown was announced and it was expected that the economic activity will increase rapidly. From 8392 cases on June 1 the COVID-19 caseload rose sharply to 18,522 on June 30. The number of deaths also rose from 230 to 418 daily in June.
July 2020: With the onset of rainy season, the total cases in the country crossed 1 million on July 17 which includes 2.75 lakh cases in Maharashtra and 11.6 lakh from Delhi.
August 2020: In August, 19 lakh 87 thousand 705 cases of COVID were found in India and 28,859 deaths had been reported. On August 1, as many as 54,735 cases were recorded while by August 31 around 78,761 cases were registered with an average of 800–900 deaths every day.
September 2020: September was the worst as the daily caseload increased from 70 thousand to nearly 1 lakh. A record 97,984 cases were reported on September 17. The number of deaths also reached about one lakh (97,497). On September 16, the highest number of 1290 deaths were recorded.
October 2020: On October 3, the total deaths in India crossed one-lakh mark. But after 1181 deaths on October 1, the death toll stayed at 551 on October 31. New cases also remained close to 48 thousand on October 31.
November 2020: After nearly two million cases consecutively for three months, there was some relief in November. On an average, daily cases have come down from 45 to 38 thousand. The daily death toll too came down to 400-450 daily.
December 2020: On December 18, in the midst of a decline in coronavirus cases, the total caseload exceeded one crore. The shocking information was that about 50 per cent of the cases were from only 47 districts of the country while about 50 per cent of the total deaths were found in 24 districts
January 2021: With the approval for coronavirus vaccine the number of cases have now fallen back to the June-July levels. On January 16 the innoculation drive began in India. About 33 lakh people have taken the vaccine.
