On the 6th of July, India reported 22,007 fresh corona positive cases. A day before, on 5th July, 24,976 cases were reported. A difference of more than 2900 cases.
This has been the pattern from at least the last two months. According to a report in The Times of India which analysed the data since May, number of cases peak over the weekend and see a sharp drop on Monday (6th July).
The previous week, Sunday (June 28th) reported 19,741 cases and the number of cases dropped the next day to 18,870.
According to the same report, The pattern has been the same for all 10 weeks, except the first week of May.
The only explanation for this could be that the number of tests conducted falls every Sunday, hence low numbers of positive cases are reported on Monday or even Tuesday.
On Saturday, July 4th, 2.48 lakh tests were done and the next day, Sunday, only 1.8 lakh. The number of tests went up again on Monday, July 6th, to 2.41 lakh.
According to the website Covid19India.org, till date (7th July), India has tested 1,10,24,491 samples and total 2,83,659 samples were tested on 9th July.
This Monday dip pattern shows why it is important for states to ramp up testing. The more tests are done, the more cases will be detected, which will help authorities contain the spread.