India records lowest coronavirus count in two months
New Delhi, Jun 6 (EFE).- India on Sunday registered its lowest daily Covid-19 caseload in two months with 114,460 infections, far below the peak daily figures of over 400,000 witnessed in May, while the daily death toll has also started to decrease.
The daily number of infections is the lowest since Apr. 6 – when the caseload stood at a little less than 97,000 – after which the country witnessed a massive surge in cases that led to a collapse of the health system, with a critical shortage of medical oxygen and ICU beds for serious patients.
“The country has recorded less than 200,000 daily new cases for 10 continuous days now. This is a result of collaborative and sustained efforts by the centre (central government) and states,” the Indian health ministry said in a statement.
The daily death toll has dropped more gradually, going under the 3,000-mark on Sunday compared to over 4,500 people dying ever day in late May. A total of 346,759 people have died of the disease in India, a figure only behind those of the United States and Brazil.
India has so far registered around 28,8 million Covid cases – the second highest after the US – out of which 1.4 million or 5.1 percent remain active.
The positivity rate now stands at around 5.62 percent, after crossing 20 percent in early May. The World Health Organization considers the pandemic under control if the positivity rate drops below 5 percent.
The western state of Maharashtra continues to be the worst affected state, although the number of cases there have also dropped drastically in the last few days like elsewhere in the country. The region registered around 13,600 cases over the past 24 hours, down from a daily caseload of nearly 70,000 in late April.
The improving pandemic situations has led to the state announcing easing of lockdown norms from Monday, with restrictions to be eased district-wise depending on the positivity rate and the number of oxygen and ICU beds available.
Meanwhile the nationwide vaccination campaign continues to be rolled out as the main way of controlling the pandemic, although so far just around 46 million people have been fully immunized out of population of 1.35 billion. A total of 231 million vaccine doses have been administered since January, with 3.3 million doses given on Saturday.
India is currently using three vaccines: AstraZeneca’s Covishield – produced by the local Serum Institute of India – Indian lab Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, and locally-made or imported doses of Russia’s Sputnik V. EFE
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