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The total coronavirus infections in India surpassed 5 million on Wednesday, continuing to rise and test the weak health care system in tens of thousands of impoverished towns and villages.
The second most populous country in the world has added more than 1 million cases of infection this month alone and is expected to become the country most affected by the pandemic in a few weeks, surpassing the United States, where more than 6.6 million people have been infected.
India’s Health Ministry reported that 90,123 new cases had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 5,020,359, roughly 0.35 percent of the country’s nearly 1.4 billion people. Its daily record of 97,570 cases was reported on September 11.
Channi Anand / AP
India confirmed more than 83,000 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing its total number of cases to nearly 5 million.
The ministry said 1,290 more people died in the last 24 hours, for a total of 82,066, which is the third highest number in the world. Experts warned that India’s death rate could rise in the coming weeks with lockdown restrictions relaxed, except in high-risk areas.
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But authorities ruled out imposing a second blockade across the country, as recoveries grew to more than 78 percent. Its death rate is 1.6 percent, well below the 3 percent in the United States and Brazil, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
Dr Gagandeep Kang, an infectious disease expert at Christian Medical College in Vellore State, South India, said the increase in cases in India was inevitable. But the country still had the opportunity to restrict the growth of cases through a strategy of testing and isolating the affected places.
He said that “the goal was for India to do enough testing to reduce the positivity rate of tests, or the fraction of tests that test positive to less than 5 percent or even less than 1 percent.”
Ashwini Bhatia / AP
A large number of offices, shops, stores, liquor stores, bars and restaurants have reopened in India. Restricted domestic and international evacuation flights are operated daily along with train services.
Most of India’s deaths are concentrated in its big cities: Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Pune. But smaller urban centers in Mahrashtra like Nagpur or Jalgaon have also reported more than 1,000 deaths.
Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on Tuesday that only about 6 percent of coronavirus patients in India were on oxygen – 0.31 percent on ventilators, 2.17 percent on hospital unit beds. intensive care with oxygen and 3.69 percent in oxygen beds.
The state of Maharashtra with more than 1 million cases remains the worst affected region in India, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. These states account for more than 60 percent of coronavirus cases in the country.
Channi Anand / AP
Across the country, India is testing more than 1 million samples per day, but many of them are antigen tests, which look for virus proteins and are faster but less accurate compared to RT-PCR.
Referring to media reports that some hospitals in Maharashtra state were facing a shortage of oxygen cylinders, Bhushan said that supplies were adequate in the country, but that state governments should monitor the situation.
“The problem occurs when there is no inventory management at the facility level,” Bhushan said.
The Health Ministry said that 155 health workers, including 46 doctors, have died so far due to Covid-19.
India’s scarce health resources are poorly distributed across the country. Almost 600 million Indians live in rural areas, and with the virus spreading rapidly through the vast interior of India, health experts worry that hospitals may be overwhelmed.
Nationwide, India is analyzing more than 1 million samples per day, surpassing the World Health Organization benchmark of 140 tests per million people. But many of these are antigen tests, looking for virus proteins and are faster but less accurate compared to RT-PCR, the gold standard for confirming the coronavirus by its genetic code.
With the economy contracting by a record 23.9 percent in the April-June quarter, leaving millions of people unemployed, the Indian government continues with the relaxed lockdown restrictions that were imposed in late March. In May, the government announced a stimulus package of US $ 266 billion (NZ $ 346 billion), but consumer demand and manufacturing have yet to recover.
A large number of offices, shops, stores, liquor stores, bars and restaurants have reopened. Restricted domestic and international evacuation flights are operated daily along with train services.
Schools will reopen for Seniors in Standards 9-12 to consult with teachers next week.
Associated Press science writer Aniruddha Ghosal contributed to this report.
