Covid cases cross 40 lakh on Friday, India just 1 lakh behind Brazil
After adding half-a-million cases in just one week, India on Friday crossed the four-million Covid-19 count and raced towards replacing Brazil from the second spot.
India has been adding more than 75,000 new cases and around 1,000 death every day in the last three weeks. The last few days saw the country crossing 80,000 Covid cases daily, which is nearly 35,000-40,000 cases more than that of the USA and Brazil on a daily basis.
India is now just around one lakh cases behind Brazil, which is the second worst-affected country after the USA. With the rate of infection wildly moving up, India should be able to pip Brazil to the second spot by Sunday.
The massive Covid-19 surge is now a truly pan-India phenomenon. South India, which was relatively better-placed in the initial part of the Covid-19 outbreak, is now battling a serious situation.
Even a small State like Kerala, which at one time nearly contained the virus, is now reporting more than 2,000 cases on a daily basis. Andhra Pradesh is now the only State in India besides Maharashtra to record more than 10,000 cases on a daily basis.
With Delhi seeing a second wave of coronavirus and Uttar Pradesh beginning to record more than 5,000 cases every day, the Covid-19 is showing no sign on plateauing out in India.
India may claim to record a below two percent death rate, but the fact remains that more than 1,000 people are succumbing to the virus every day. If the trend persists, India may have close to one lakh fatalities by the end of September.
The decision to open up metro trains and bars and restaurants will pose fresh challenge in containing the spread of the virus, which has now spread to the remotest corner of the country.
Saturday, 05 September 2020 | PNS | New Delhi
