India’s Covid toll passes 5 million
India’s total coronavirus cases passed five million on Wednesday as the pandemic extends its grip on the vast country at an ever-faster rate.
India’s total coronavirus cases passed five million on Wednesday as the pandemic extends its grip on the vast country at an ever-faster rate.
With its latest one million cases recorded in just 11 days, India has 5.02 million infections, second only to the US with 6.6 million.
India has for some time been recording the world’s biggest daily jumps in cases, and on Wednesday, the rise was just over 90,000 with a record 1290 deaths.
While India took 167 days to reach one million cases, the next million came in just 21 days, faster than the US and Brazil, according to the Times of India.
Just 29 days later, India became only the third country after the US and Brazil to post four million infections. India passed Brazil earlier this month.
Even so, and with India testing about a million people daily, many experts say this is not enough and that the true number of infections may be far higher.
This has been borne out in several studies in recent weeks measuring antibodies against the virus among the cramped populations of megacities New Delhi and Mumbai.
The India Council for Medical Research, the country’s lead pandemic agency, said last week that its survey had suggested by May 6.5 million people had been infected.
The same goes for deaths — 82,066 as of Wednesday, less than half the US toll of 196,000 — with many deaths not properly recorded by authorities even in normal times.
India has one the world’s most poorly funded healthcare systems and the nation of 1.3 billion people is home to some of the most densely populated cities and towns.
The sharp rise in cases is despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government imposing one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in March, leaving tens of millions of people in the informal labour market jobless almost overnight.
The lockdown saw complete travel bans, shutting down of businesses and factories, and the flight of millions of poor migrant workers from big cities to their villages that experts say caused the virus to spread from urban centres to small towns.
India’s GDP slumped nearly 24 per cent in the first quarter, one of the steepest drops among major economies.
The lockdown has been steadily eased even as infections soar, with schools set to open for some classes on Monday — along with tourist hotspot the Taj Mahal.
The pandemic has now killed more than 935,000 people worldwide, based on official sources.
More than 29.5 million cases have been confirmed.
After the US, Brazil has the most deaths with 133,100. Mexico has 71,700 and Britain 41,800.
AFP
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