India’s Covid-19 cases and deaths per million population is still among the lowest in the world, despite being a country with 1.3 billion people, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.
“We are the second-most populous country in the world. Despite a population of 1.3 billion people, India has been able to manage Covid-19 relatively well. If you look at cases per million populations, it still remains amongst the lowest in the world,” Rajesh Bhushan, OSD, Ministry of Health said.
Amid a sudden surge in coronavirus patients across states over the last few weeks, the country’s viral caseload is an estimated 2,69,000 people. “When we talk of the caseload of Covid-19 in India, it is 2,69,000 people. This tells us that at the end of the day we’ve managed a situation where our health care infrastructure is not unduly burdened and is not creaking due to the pressure,” Bhushan said.
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Currently, India has 538 cases per million population, which is as per the World Health Organization’s situation report. Cases per million population in some countries are at least 16-17 times more than what it is in India. The country has 15 deaths per million population whereas there are countries where it is 40 times as much, the health ministry data indicated.
{{/usCountry}}Currently, India has 538 cases per million population, which is as per the World Health Organization’s situation report. Cases per million population in some countries are at least 16-17 times more than what it is in India. The country has 15 deaths per million population whereas there are countries where it is 40 times as much, the health ministry data indicated.
{{/usCountry}}“The number of Covid-19 tests has increased, on an average, we are testing more than 2.6 lakh samples per day. We hope to see a further rise by the use of the antigen test,” ICMR’s senior scientist Nivedita Gupta said.
About 10 per cent of India’s population (60 years and above) accounts for 53 per cent of the country’s Covid-19 related deaths, the health ministry official said.
National capital Delhi which recently crossed the 1 lakh mark of Covid-19 cases has showed remarkable improvement, with a recovery rate of over 72 per cent, according to the ministry’s latest data. The doubling rate of Covid-19 cases too has gone up to nearly 30 days in the national capital region.
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India on Thursday saw a steep single-day surge of 24,879 coronavirus infections which pushed the nationwide Covid-19 caseload to 7,67,296. The death toll climbed to 21,129 with 487 new deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry.
The number of patients who have recovered from the viral infection stands at 4,76,377, while there are 2,69,789 active cases of coronavirus presently in the country.
“Around 62.08 per cent of coronavirus patients have recovered so far,” an official said.