India logs record daily jump of over 75,000 coronavirus infections
New Delhi, Aug 27 (efe-epa).- India on Thursday reported 75,760 Covid-19 patients, the highest daily jump in infections since the pandemic began, according to data from the federal health ministry.
Deaths in the last 24 hours from Wednesday increased by 1,023, taking the toll to 60,472, according to the country’s health authorities.
With an overall tally soaring above the 3.3-million mark and the daily average of more than 60,000 cases recorded in the last two weeks, India is fast closing the gap with Brazil, the second-worst hit country by the virus – that has 3.7 million cases and a daily average of 45,000 case.
On Aug. 22 India had recorded a daily count of 70,488 infections.
With more than 1.6 million infections reported in August alone, India has been logging the highest single-day caseloads in the world since the first week of this month, according to the data released by Johns Hopkins University.
India has the world’s third-highest caseload after the United States (six million) and Brazil, while the South Asian nation’s reported Covid-19 fatalities are the fourth-highest in the world.
The health authorities have emphasized India’s recovery rate of 76.24 percent and the mortality rate of 1.83 percent, which is lower as compared to other worst-hit countries in the world.
“With more patients recovering and being discharged from hospitals and home isolation (in case of mild and moderate cases), India’s total Covid-19 recoveries crossed 2.5 million today (Thursday),” the health ministry said in a statement.
“India has posted nearly 1.8 million recoveries than the active (726,000) cases. The sustained high recoveries have ensured that the actual caseload of the country viz. the active cases, comprises 21.93 percent of the total positive cases.”
However, N. Venkatachala Ravi, a known virologist in Delhi, told EFE that the country of 1.35 billion people, mostly living in some of the world’s most densely-populated cities, was staring at a grave health crisis due to the pandemic.
“The authorities maybe in denial but there is a crisis, there is a massive-scale human suffering. Partly because India was woefully unprepared and the government also wasted crucial time in February and March before the outbreak,” Ravi said.
“The silver lining is that Covid-19 mortality in the country is relatively low which in all probability indicates that there would not be a major mortality crisis,” he said.
“But more worryingly, cases are now rising faster in India’s urban and poorer regions where the preparedness of the health system is under par and much lower than in metro cities.” EFE-EPA
ia-ssk
