MUMBAI (Reuters) – India became the third country in the world to register more than a million cases of the new coronavirus on Friday, behind only the United States and Brazil, as infections spread through the countryside and cities. smaller.
A healthcare worker wearing protective gear takes a swab from a woman for a rapid antigen test, in the midst of the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at a checkpoint in Ahmedabad, India on 17 July 2020. REUTERS / Amit Dave
Experts say that since India’s population is around 1.3 billion, one million is relatively low, but the number will increase significantly in the coming months as testing increases, further stressing a healthcare system. that is already on the brink.
The pandemic has increased in the country in recent weeks, as it spread beyond the largest cities, pushing India beyond Russia as the third most infected country last week.
Authorities imposed new blockades and designated new containment zones in several states this week, including the largely rural state of Bihar in the east and the southern technology center of Bengaluru, where cases have skyrocketed.
But officials have had trouble enforcing the blockades and keeping people inside.
India recorded 34,956 new infections on Friday, bringing the total to 1,003,832, with 25,602 deaths from COVID-19, data from the federal health ministry showed. That compares with 3.6 million cases in the United States and 2 million in Brazil, countries with less than a third of India’s population.
Epidemiologists say India is likely still months away from reaching its peak.
“In the coming months, we are bound to see more and more cases, and that is the natural progression of any pandemic,” said Giridhar Babu, an epidemiologist at the nonprofit Public Health Foundation of India.
“As we move forward, the goal has to be lower mortality,” he said. “A critical challenge that states will face is how to rationally allocate hospital beds.”
The past four months of the pandemic in India have exposed serious gaps in the country’s health system, which is one of the most poorly funded and for years has lacked enough doctors or hospital beds.
The Indian government has defended a strict blockade it imposed in March to stem the spread of the virus, saying it helped keep death rates low and gave time to strengthen health infrastructure. But public health experts say the shortage persists and could affect much in the coming months.
“As a public health measure, I don’t think the closure has had much of an impact. It just delayed the spread of the virus, “said Dr. Kapil Yadav, an assistant professor of community medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.
The million cases recorded so far probably left many asymptomatic out, he said. “It is a huge understatement.”
Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take concrete steps to contain the pandemic, tweeting that the number of infections will double to two million by August 10 at this rate.
Millions of migrant workers, abandoned in cities by the running of the bulls in March, made long journeys home on foot, some died on the way while others left without work or wages.
Several states, including Bihar, to which many of the migrants returned, have witnessed an increase in cases in recent weeks as the blockade has been eased to save a downed economy.
Babu predicts that India will not see a sharp spike and a decline.
“The waves are changing from one place to another, so we cannot say that there will be a peak for the entire country. In India, it will be a sustained plateau for some time and then it will shrink. ”
Report by Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai; Additional reports by Chandini Monnappa, Derek Francis and Abhirup Roy; Edition of Sanjeev Miglani and William Mallard
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