India Covid cases cross another painful milestone at 20 million
NEW DELHI: India on Monday became the second country in the world to record more than 20 million Covid-19 cases, with 355,832 fresh cases and 3,502 deaths adding to the grim numbers amid the second wave of the viral infections in the country.
The outbreak of the viral disease began in India on March 3. From then, it took 197 days for the Indian tally to reach 5 million on September 15, 2020. It took another 94 days to touch the 10-million mark on December 18. While the next 5 million cases took another 121 days, the latest 5 million cases have only taken 15 days.
The Centre on Monday said the rising number of daily Covid-19 cases in some states remained a cause of concern.
Addressing a news briefing, joint secretary in the health ministry Lav Agarwal said states such as Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and West Bengal were showing an increase in daily infections.
He said there were 12 states where active cases were more than 100,000.
A leading US-based global health research body has projected 1.02 million cumulative deaths in India from Covid-19 by August 1, with 630,000 additional fatalities from April 26, unless “drastic measures” were taken.
The previous projection by this institute for the same end date was 960,000.
India on Monday became the second country in the world to see the total number of Covid-19 infections surpass 20 million, and this comes at a time when the country is at the worst position ever recorded, with the second wave of cases wreaking havoc across the country.