India’s Covid-19 death toll crosses 150,000

New Delhi, Jan 6 (efe-epa).- India had by Wednesday registered 150,114 deaths due to the new coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, including 226 within the last 24 hours, although the rate of mortalities and fresh infections has been steadily declining in the country of over 1.3 billion people.

India, which has registered over 10.3 million Covid-19 infections so far, continues to be the country with the third highest casualties behind the United States (357,422) and Brazil (197,732) and the second highest number of cases behind the US (over 21 million).

However, unlike these two countries, the pandemic situation in India has gradually improved since September, when it had been recording over 1,000 deaths and nearly 100,000 infections daily. In contrast, on Wednesday the number of fresh infections registered within the past 24 hours stood at 18,088.

‘There is a steady decline in the number of daily deaths recorded in the country. Less than 300 new deaths are being recorded in the country from the last 12 days,” the Indian health ministry said in a statement.

It added that this amounted to less than one death per million inhabitants within the past seven days, calling it a “new achievement” that shows the “effective COVID management and response policy of the Central Government.”

Of the 10.3 million cases registered since Jan. 30 – when the first case of the new coronavirus was reported in the country – 96 percent have already been cured and only 227,546 cases remain active, according to health ministry data.

However, even as the country prepares to launch a mass vaccination drive against Covid this month, one of the biggest concerns for Indian authorities is a growing number of cases of the British coronavirus strain in the country, currently standing at 71.

The new variant, which poses a higher risk of transmission, was detected in India after the screening of around 33,000 passengers who had arrived from the United Kingdom between Nov. 25 and Dec. 23, when all flights to and from the UK were canceled.

The flight ban, first imposed until Dec. 31, was later extended up to Jan. 7.

Although India has kept commercial international flights suspended since late March, it had established air bubbles with international terminals in over 20 countries, including the UK. EFE-EPA

mt/ia