Coronavirus : India took a dubious lead from Russia

Special Desk

India on Monday took lead from Russia, which shall not be appreciated. India recorded over 24000 new Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking total number of cases above Russia.

India now has the third-largest number of confirmed cases in the world, 6,97,413. United States and Brazil are ahead of India, now.

There have been 19,693 deaths. The latest surge in numbers has also been powered by a rise in cases from a handful of southern states, including Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

India reopened shopping centres, places of worship and offices a month ago. For the last three days, India’s caseload has galloped at an alarming rate, adding more than 20,000 daily cases. India has the third highest number of cases, and it is eighth in fatalities, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins University. Southern Indian states had earlier managed to keep infections at bay.

But this looks to change as reported infections in the south – Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu – are growing faster than the national growth rate. India went into a stringent lockdown in March in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus, whose numbers were only in the hundreds then.

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India’s low fatality rate – 2.4% in comparison to the global average of 4.7% – is a potential silver lining. The country’s climbing recovery rate – about 60% of all its confirmed cases – is another encouraging sign. And some states the recovery rate is even higher like Uttar Pradesh where the recovery rate is 69% with over 28000 cases reported till now.

The rise in numbers is a reflection of increased testing – cities and states across the country have ramped up testing in recent weeks.