The country yesterday set a coronavirus record when it reported 78,761 new infections in 24 hours — the world’s highest single-day rise — even as it continued to open up the economy.
Home to 1.3bn people, India is already the world’s third-most infected nation with more than 3.5mn cases, behind the US and Brazil.
It has also reported more than 63,000 deaths, according to the official health ministry toll.
The US set the previous record on July 17 with 77,638 daily infections, according to an AFP tally.
In his regular monthly radio address yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not comment on the milestone but called on Indians to observe health safety measures.
“It is important that every citizen is healthy and happy and we defeat coronavirus completely together,” Modi said in Hindi.
“Corona(virus) can only be defeated when you remain safe, when you fulfil the resolve of keeping a safe distance of two yards and wearing masks.”
Experts warn that while a ramp up in testing in recent months was encouraging, more needed to be done to capture the scale of the pandemic in the world’s second-most populous nation.
The virus has badly hit megacities such as financial hub Mumbai and the capital New Delhi, but is now also surging in smaller cities and rural areas.
“Testing per million in India at 30,000 remains the second lowest in top 10 (virus-infected) countries.
“Mexico is lowest at about 10,000,” virologist Shahid Jameel, who heads the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance, said yesterday.
“We are still finding one positive in every 11 to 12 tests. This number should be one in 20 simply and means that testing is still sub-optimal and the outbreak is growing.”
Doctor Hemant Shewade, a Bengaluru-based community medicine expert, added that India also needed to focus on reducing deaths — the fourth-highest in the world according to a tally by John Hopkins University.
from Gulf Times https://ift.tt/3juwOOY
Comments
Post a Comment