Health

India records over 141,000 daily Covid cases during onset of third wave

New Delhi, Jan 8 (EFE).- India recorded 141,986 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, a sharp rise during the onset of the third wave of the disease in the country.

Covid-19 cases in India have been multiplying rapidly since late December following weeks of less than 10,000 daily cases, according to official data from the health ministry.

Saturday’s figure is the highest in over seven months despite more than half of the adult population being fully vaccinated and herd immunity data indicating that about two-thirds of the population have already developed antibodies to the disease.

The states of Maharashtra and Delhi, among the most populated regions of the country, recorded the highest numbers of new cases with 40,925 and 17,335 respectively.

Infections in the country are increasing at an unprecedented rate.

The country, with a population of 1.35 billion, took almost seven months to pass 100,000 daily cases during the first wave and almost four months to reach the threshold during the second.

The authorities’ estimate that between 500,000 and one million daily cases could be recorded during the third wave’s peak, which is beind driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The alarming rise of Covid-19 cases poses a danger to India, which has a fragile healthcare system, a vulnerable population, and limited stocks of medical supplies and hospital beds.

The peak of 400,000 cases per day in May during the worst phase of the pandemic in India caused a shortage of oxygen across the country, and overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums with more than 4,000 deaths per day.

A total of 483,463 people have died from the coronavirus in India in just under two years, 285 of them in the last 24 hours.

More than 623.2 million people have received two doses of the Covid vaccine since the country’s vaccination drive began almost a year ago while at least 875.1 million have received one. EFE

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