20.7.20

India surges past 1m cases

India has recorded over 1 million Covid-19 cases and 25,000 deaths from Coronavirus, crossing the twin milestones on Thursday amid a massive surge in the pandemic. The country added over 36,000 new cases and 684 deaths during the day, both by far the highest in a single day.

India is the third country, after the US and Brazil, to log one million cases and the eighth to register over 25,000 deaths. India’s caseload has risen from 8 lakh to 10 lakh (1 million) in just six days, as compared with nine days while moving from 6 lakh to 8 lakh and 11 for the previous 2 lakh cases. Likewise, the death toll has risen from 20,000 to 25,000 in just 10 days.

On Thursday, India recorded 36,139 new cases, over 3,600 more than the previous peak of 32,498 a day earlier, as per data collated from states. With this, India’s caseload rose to 10,04,806. Active cases rose by nearly 12,000 while around 23,000 patients were declared cured during the day.

Thursday also saw the highest single-day rise in the Covid-19 death toll, with 684 fatalities reported from across the country. The previous highest toll of 616 (discounting 2,003, mostly backdated death reported on June 16) was recorded on Wednesday. Karnataka saw a huge spike in fatalities, adding 104 to its toll. It became the third state, after Maharashtra and Delhi, to register 100 deaths in a single day.

The day’s toll was also high in Tamil Nadu (69), Delhi (58), Andhra Pradesh (40), Uttar Pradesh (34), Bengal (23) and J&K (16). In what would be another record, at least 11 states reported their highest singleday surge in cases, led by Maharashtra, which recorded a massive 8,641 new infections.

Amid a major spike in the pandemic in the state, Karnataka became the third state to log 4,000 or more cases in a day, nearly 1,000 more than Wednesday’s number. Even as fresh cases rose to a new high in Tamil Nadu, Chennai continued to report declining numbers. As Chennai detected 1,157 cases on Thursday, a mathematical model suggested that the infection was no more an epidemic in the city.

Telangana recorded 10 deaths and 1,676 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, taking the total tally of cases beyond the 40,000 mark.

No comments: