With 50,000 deaths, India crosses 26 lakh COVID-19 cases

India has logged over 50,000 deaths linked to coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, the Union Health Ministry said this morning. The country’s Covid tally crossed the 26 lakh-mark today with about 58,000 fresh infections and 941 deaths registered in the last 24 hours. Last week, India overtook Britain as the country that has recorded world’s fourth-highest number of Covid-linked deaths, behind the United States, Brazil and Mexico. About 19.19 lakh coronavirus patients have recovered in the country so far; the recovery rate stood at 72.51 per cent this morning.

India, which is the third worst-affected country by the pandemic, has been reporting the highest number of daily cases across the world for the last 13 days, surpassing the United States and Brazil that have a higher caseload, according to the data shared by the World Health Organization. The United States – epicentre of the pandemic – has recorded over 54 lakh patients so far; more than 33 lakh patients have been registered in Brazil, about 7 lakh more than India.

It took about 200 days for India to cross 26 lakh cases; the first patient was reported by Kerala on January 30. One lakh patients were recorded by May 19. In July, the tally rose from six lakh cases at the beginning of the month to roughly 16 lakh cases by July 31.
About 10 lakh cases have been recorded this month. The country passed 20 lakh cases on August 6.

More than three crore samples have been tested so far, the government data shows. The country has an estimated population of about 130 crore people and a patient can be tested more than once until recovery. About 7.31 lakh samples were tested yesterday.

An indicator of the prevalence of the disease, the positivity rate stood at 7.92 per cent this morning, as compared to yesterday’s 8.50 per cent.

In the last 24 hours, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of Covid cases. The highest number of deaths were also recorded from these five states.

The ten states that have logged the highest number of cases so far are: Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal, Bihar, Telangana and Gujarat.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, during his address to the nation on 74th Independence Day, said that three coronavirus vaccines are at different stages of testing in India and the government has a plan to ensure that a vaccine, when approved, reaches every Indian.

Russia said last week that it has developed the first Covid vaccine – Sputnik 5. Critics, however, claimed, the vaccine was cleared before the result of third phase of trial were out.

Worldwide, over 2.16 crore people have been affected by the pandemic so far; more than 7.75 lakh patients have died.