Covid-19 Tally Tops 1.5 Lakh As India Adds 50,000 Cases In Eight Days
India added 6,387 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed infections to 151,767.
India continues to see an influx of Covid-19 cases as the world’s second-most populous nation eased some lockdown restrictions to aid a struggling economy despite failing to flatten the virus curve.
In little over a week after crossing the 1-lakh tally, the country’s case count breached the 1.5-lakh mark. India added 6,387 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed infections to 151,767, according to the health ministry’s update at 8 a.m. on May 27. This includes 64,426 recoveries and 4,337 people who succumbed to the deadly pathogen.
India has now added more than 6,000 fresh cases for the sixth straight day. To put things into perspective, the first 50,000 cases were reported over 70 days, while the latest 50,000 took only eight days.
India’s pace of adding new cases is the fourth fastest among nations that have reported more than 1 lakh cases. The country added an average of 6,320 cases daily over the last seven days, behind only the U.S. (21,764), Brazil (17,048) and Russia (8,914).
The number of Covid-19 positives per 100 tests have been steadily rising in India since early May, according to BloombergQuint’s calculations.
To be sure, the data may not completely capture the virus’ spread since testing capacity is limited and the current strategy only allows for screening of persons showing symptoms and asymptomatic people who came in contact with a known Covid-19 patient. Also, India’s total tests recorded is higher than total number of people tested—since one person is screened multiple times after testing positive.
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Gujarat are the biggest contributors to India’s burgeoning cases. These four states together account for around 68% of the nation’s total tally. Maharashtra alone contributes about a third to the total confirmed count.
This comes at a time states are relaxing measures to open an economy that has been under the world’s biggest lockdown since March 25. Domestic flight operations have resumed across the country in a phased manner. There will be limited flights from and to Mumbai—India’s financial hub and a hotspot with nearly 33,000 cases.
The subcontinent ranks 10th among nations with the highest coronavirus cases.