China Reports 46 New Cases, India’s Curve Remains Steeper Than Asian Peers

China’s new cases hint at the second wave of the outbreak, India’s curve remains steeper than Asian peers

Photo: AFP

New Delhi: As China has started lifting restrictions in different parts of the country including Wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic, has reported 46 fresh cases of COVID-19. In the second wave, infections are seen from people traveling to China with asymptomatic cases. On Friday there were 46 fresh cases which were up from 42 cases a day earlier, whereas 34 new asymptomatic cases were reported, which is lower than the count of the previous day. China has been able to control the outbreak by imposing stricter measures and lockdown since January which helped in controlling the surge in cases from its peak. Policymakers in China have expressed concerns over a second wave because of people coming from outside or asymptomatic patients. The spike has been reported from Northeastern Heilongjiang as Chinese nationals are reaching the province from Russia. It had reported 22 new which includes Chinese nationals and one new local case, in its capital of Harbin. In another region Inner Mongolia had seen 27 new imported cases mostly people coming from Russia. The hotspot central province of Hubei, which reported the first case late last year didn’t report any fresh case for a seventh day. The new cases have taken the total number of positive cases in the mainland China to 83,003 and the death toll has touched 3,343, according to John Hopkins University. Meanwhile, the number of covid-19 cases in India witnessed a spike of 28 per cent over the past two days to touch 6761-mark. This is a faster increase compared to the previous 48 hours, when the reported case count rose 23 per cent to 5,274. However, this week the rise has been slightly lower (Sunday and Friday) compared to the previous five day. There has been 89 per cent rise in the positive cases compared to 159 per cent rise in the previous week. Even as the number of cases from the previous week has tapered the country’s curve depicting the rise in the number of cases continues to be steeper than Asian peers including Singapore, Japan, and even Pakistan. The curve remains flatter than that of the US, which has emerged as the new epicentre of the global pandemic, as it continues to report the highest number of deaths and active cases.