New Delhi, India on Saturday surpassed Italy and became the sixth worst-affected country from novel coronavirus as the tally zoomed to 2,36,657 after registering the highest 9,887 fresh cases.
Now, the United States, Brazil, Russia, Spain, and United Kingdom are ahead of India in terms of the number of infections.
India in the coming days will ‘easily’ surpass the UK and Spain as its average number of cases, touching 9,000 in the last few days, is drastically higher than the two countries.
As per the latest update from Union Health Ministry, the death toll from the virus rose to 6,642 as 294 more patients died in the past 24 hours. Among the fresh deaths, a maximum of 139 was recorded in Maharashtra.
Still, India has managed to keep its death rate low at 2.80 percent which the worst-affected countries failed to. The death rate in the US is 5.6 pc while in Brazil 5.4 pc.
Also, the recovery rate in India improved to 48.20 pc as 1,14,073 patients were able to challenge the disease and recover fully. Of the total, 4,611 recoveries were registered in the past 24 hours.
But, India has, so far, conducted 45,24,317 tests which are 3,218 tests per million and lowest among the top 10 infected countries.
Also, the country has moved from “lockdown” to “unlock mode” with more relaxations and movement despite the rise in fresh cases. It is also gearing up to reopen malls, markets, religious places, and restaurants in non-containment areas from June 8, which according to health experts might further spread the infection.
The lockdown was relaxed to bring life to the economy battered from COVID crisis and restrictions.
According to a WHO expert, the Covid-19 disease has not “exploded” in India, but the risk looms large.
Maharashtra continues to remain the worst-affected with 80,229 COVID-19 cases, which includes 2,506 deaths.
At next, Tamil Nadu houses 28,694 cases while 1,438 deaths have occurred so far.
Racing fast, the total number of infections in Delhi has reached 26,334 which consists of 58 deaths.
World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that COVID-19 pandemic could be an opportunity for India to speed up the health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat, especially with a focus on primary healthcare.
