India’s Covid-19 Tally Tops Three Lakh As It Adds 1 Lakh Cases In 10 Days
While India took about 111 days to reach 1 lakh cases, it doubled the count in 15 days; the next lakh took another 10 days.
The coronavirus tally in India breached the 3-lakh mark on Saturday after the nation added around one lakh cases in 10 days, becoming the third-fastest growing outbreak of the novel virus globally.
India added 11,458 new cases over the last 24 hours, taking the total case count to 3,08,993, according to the Health Ministry’s update at 8 a.m. on June 13. This includes 1,54,330 recoveries and 8,884 people who have succumbed to the deadly virus.
The world’s second-most populous country is now adding almost 10,000 cases everyday—behind only the U.S. and Brazil. India, on average, has added 9,951 cases daily over the past week, compared with the U.S.’ 21,527 and Brazil’s 26,841 daily cases.
The pace of transmission of infection in the nation of 1.3 billion people continues to surge unabated while the rate has started to decelerate in some of the developed nations. India’s now adding more cases daily than the U.K., France, Spain and Italy—countries that witnessed a massive outbreak recently.
While India took about 111 days to reach 1 lakh cases, it doubled the count in 15 days; the next lakh took another 10 days.
The spike in cases comes as the country eased restrictions after a stringent two-month lockdown, allowing restaurants, temples and malls to reopen.
India’s Hotspots
Four states—Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Gujarat—account for nearly two-thirds of India’s overall case count.
Mumbai, the nation’s financial hub, has emerged as the epicentre of the outbreak, accounting for over 55,000 cases as of June 12. However, cases are doubling at a faster pace in Delhi.
Low Testing
India’s testing rate—which is lower than that in countries like the U.S. or the U.K.—is a concern. It has been testing 3,911 patients per million people, according to BloombergQuint’s calculations
To be sure, India has increased its testing capacity over the past couple of months. It has so far tested more than 5.3 million samples as of June 12, and is, on average, now doing almost 139,000 tests everyday over the last week—up from about 81,000 tests a day nearly a month ago.
However, the positivity rate is also on the rise in Asia’s third-largest economy. In the first week of the lockdown, India reported three cases per 100 tests—which has now risen to 5.5 cases per 100 tests.
Concerns have also been raised over the diverse testing rates in different states. Maharashtra, for instance, which has recorded the highest number of cases so far, is conducting 5,000 tests per million people—far lesser than Delhi or Jammu and Kashmir’s 14,511 and 18,184 tests per million people, respectively. Uttar Pradesh, which is India’s most populous state, isn’t even reporting testing data.
Mortality Rate
India’s Covid-19 mortality rate is among the lowest in the world, according to Lav Agarwal, joint secretary of the Ministry of Family Welfare and Health.
The seven-day rolling average, however, suggested that fatalities in India are increasing, albeit slowly. The data showed while the country was adding, on average, 15 deaths a day in the first week of April, that has now increased to more than 300 deaths a day.
The casualty figure, in terms of deaths per million people, is among the highest in in Maharashtra, Delhi and Gujarat. While Delhi’s reporting around 58 deaths per million people, Maharashtra and Gujarat are reporting 29.5 and 21.68 deaths per million people, respectively.