INDIA became the second country after the United States to record over seven million COVID-19 cases yesterday, as the pandemic continues to spread across the South Asian nation at a rapid pace.
The total tally of cases stood at 7,053,806 with 74,383 new infections since Saturday, according to a bulletin issued by the Federal Health Ministry.
There were 918 deaths in the same period, taking total fatalities to 108,334.
The virus has spread at an alarming pace in India since authorities started easing a strict lockdown at the end of May.
The first case of COVID-19 in India was reported on January 30 and the tally reached its first million on July 16.
The spread has been exponential since, with six million cases added in less than three months.
But the latest trends show a decline.
An average of 70,000 daily cases has been reported over the past three weeks, compared to 90,000 daily in the first two weeks of September.
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Nonetheless, India has still been reporting the highest daily infections globally for over a month.
Experts warn that the current lull could be temporary as winter approaches, along with the Hindu festival season as more and more people go back to workplaces.
The federal government has advised regional administrations that they can open schools and cinema halls with 50 per cent attendance from mid-October.
At the current pace, India, a country of 1.3 billion people, looks set to soon overtake the U.S. – with its 7,717,633 cases – as the country with the most infections.
In a positive, new recoveries of COVID-19 patients in India have exceeded fresh cases for more than three weeks, the health ministry said.
India has the highest number of recovered patients in the world, with a recovery rate of 86.2 per cent.
India also has a much lower death rate than other worst-hit countries – around half of the death toll of 214,370 recorded in the U.S., which has less than a quarter of the population.
Brazil meanwhile has recorded 150,000 deaths.
Many epidemiologists attribute India’s low death rate to a young population.
Some experts also say that the overall fatalities have been low due to under-counting in the country.
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