In charts: Covid-19 cases surge across four metro cities, growing faster than previous waves

In India, Covid-19 cases have spiralled up in the last fortnight of December, with experts saying this could be the beginning of a third wave of the pandemic in the country. The latest surge is steep and growing faster than the previous two waves.

During the summer when a deadly second wave swept the country, it took 27 days for daily cases to grow from 800 to over 2,000 in Mumbai. This time, it has taken just five days for cases to multiply to this level.

A comparison of four metro cities shows that Delhi has recorded the highest growth in positive infections in this period, while Mumbai has recorded the steepest growth in test positivity rate – or the number of positive cases per 100 samples tested. High test positivity indicates more spread of the virus in the community.

On Wednesday, Mumbai recorded 2,510 fresh Covid-19 cases, a 10-fold jump since December 15. In the same period cases in Delhi rose from 45 to 923, a 20-fold surge. In Kolkata, cases have risen by 2.7 times, and in Chennai by 2.3 times.

“I think this is the start of the Omicron wave in India, which a number of us had believed would happen around early January,”…

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