India adds fewer than 30,000 Covid-19 cases for first time in 4 months
New Delhi, July 27 (EFE).- India added fewer than 30,000 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Tuesday, marking the lowest daily rise in the last more than four months.
The federal health ministry said 29,689 people tested positive for the virus since Monday morning, raising the total number of infections since the pandemic began to 31.4 million.
It is the first time in over four months that daily cases have dipped below 30,000.
The country added nearly 29,000 cases on Mar.17 at the beginning of the devastating second wave of the virus outbreak.
The second wave led to the near-collapse of the already fragile healthcare system in India.
Some 415 people succumbed to the disease over the past day, bringing the overall fatality to 421,382.
However, various experts believe that Covid-19 fatalities in India could be several times higher than what the government is reporting.
A Center for Global Development (CDG) study published last week said excess deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic in India could be as high as 4.9 million.
The study suggested further evidence that millions more may have died from coronavirus than the official tally in the country of 1.35 billion people.
Health workers have given 436 million vaccine doses since the drive began in January.
Authorities see the inoculation campaign as the best defense against Covid-19, even as the drive has been sluggish due to vaccine shortages.
India remained in the grip of the second wave of virus from mid-March that peaked in May with more than 400,000 cases and 4,000 deaths a day.
The highly infectious Delta variant of the virus detected first in India was one of the factors that caused the widespread outbreak of the infection.
The variant is already dominant in Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. EFE
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