India nears 29 million total Covid-19 cases while infections fall
New Delhi, Jun 7 (EFE).- India recorded Monday a little over 100,636 coronavirus infections, the lowest in 61 days, taking the total confirmed cases to 28.9 million since the start of the pandemic, according to health ministry data.
The daily cases have fallen considerably since a month ago when the country was recording 400,000 infections at the peak of the second wave that crippled the healthcare system, with a shortage of hospital beds and medical oxygen.
India remains the second most affected country in the world behind the United States, which has recorded 33.3 million total coronavirus infections, according to John Hopkins University.
The number of deaths have also been on the decline with 2,427 fatalities registered in the last 24 hours, which was around 300 less than the previous day.
The drop is even more significant compared to the over 4,500 daily deaths recorded towards the end of last month.
The total reported deaths in India since the start of the pandemic are now 349,186, which is only behind the US and Brazil.
The positivity rate is also now 6.34 percent, compared to the 10 percent some two weeks ago and 20 percent at the beginning of May.
The World Health Organization considers a pandemic to be under control in a country if the positivity rate is less than 5 percent.
With the number of infections and deaths declining, several regions have begun to ease restrictions imposed to check the transmission of the coronavirus.
Such is the case of Maharashtra, which was the most affected state in the country with 70,000 daily cases at the end of April but now recorded a much lower 12,557 infections in the last 24 hours.
From Monday, this western region begins a phased district-wise lifting of restrictions, depending on the positivity rate and the number of ICU and oxygen beds available.
The national capital of New Delhi, which was facing a critical situation with crowded hospitals and a lack of medical oxygen a few weeks ago, continued Monday with a further easing of restrictions, allowing public transport to resume and offices to reopen at 50 percent capacity.
The vaccination campaign in the country of over 1.3 billion continued at a lower than expected pace with 1.3 million doses administered in the last 24 hours and 232 million total jabs since January. EFE
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