Covid-19: How does India compare with worst-hit nations on cases, vaccination

India recently became the second worst-hit nation in terms of the absolute number of Covid-19 cases, surpassing Brazil, and has been reporting the highest daily caseloads for the past few days.

An exponential rise in India’s coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases has overwhelmed the country’s health infrastructure, with more than 2,59,000 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours. India recently became the second worst-hit nation in terms of the absolute number of Covid-19 cases, surpassing Brazil, and has been reporting the highest daily caseloads for the past few days.

The ministry of health and family welfare on Tuesday announced that India’s total active caseload has crossed the sombre milestone of 20 lakh.(AP)

India’s total caseload is more than 15.32 million, second only to the United States which has recorded over 31.73 million Covid-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. The Union ministry of health and family welfare on Tuesday announced that India’s total active caseload has crossed the sombre milestone of 20 lakh, which now comprises 13.26% of the country's total cases - both active and recovered.

Here are the five worst-hit nations in terms of the absolute number of Covid-19 cases:

1. US - 31,738,706
2. India - 15,320,972
3. Brazil - 13,973,695
4. France - 5,357,230
5. Russia - 4,665,553

Five nations with highest daily caseloads:

1. India - 2,59,170
2. Turkey - 55,149
3. US - 51,650
4. Brazil - 34,642
5. Iran - 24,346

Five worst-hit nations in terms of total Covid-related deaths:

1. US - 567,729
2. Brazil - 374,682
3. Mexico - 212,466
4. India - 180,530
5. UK - 127,524

Meanwhile, countries around the world are also ramping up their vaccination drive to flatten the infection curve as quickly as possible and the United States has administered at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine to more than 131 million people, the highest in the world. But Israel boasts of the highest immunisation coverage in terms of percentage of population administered with at least one dose of vaccine.

Five countries with most number of people who received at least one dose of Covid vaccine:

1. US - 132.32 million
2. India - 109.66 million
3. UK - 32.93 million
4. Brazil - 24.78 million
5. Germany - 16.80 million

While India is second only to the US on cumulative vaccination coverage, it is currently way behind in terms of the percentage of the population vaccinated. According to Our World in Data, India has vaccinated 7.95% of its population against Covid-19. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh recently suggested his successor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to resist the temptation of looking at the absolute number and "focus instead on the percentage of the population vaccinated."

Five countries with the highest percentage of the population vaccinated:

1. Israel - 61.82%
2. UK - 48.51%
3. Chile - 40.46%
4. US - 39.24%
5. Bahrain - 35.42%