India’s active cases go past two million mark

NEW DELHI: The number of active cases in India on Monday crossed the two million mark as the mammoth surge of new infections continued to push the overburdened health care system to limits, with reports emerging from across the country of hospitals running out of ICU beds, and crucial supplies such as oxygen cylinders.

The latest in the series of grim landmarks for the country comes only 10 days after active cases in the country crossed the 1 million active cases mark on April 10. As of Monday night, there were a total of 2,030,725 active cases across the country, the highest active caseload ever recorded in India since the start of the outbreak in March last year, according to HT’S Covid-19 dashboard.

For the third day running, India’s daily case tally remained above the quarter million mark as 256,596 new cases were reported, while a record 1757 daily deaths were lodged. India’s overall caseload now has reached 15.3 million – the second-highest after the United

States – and 154,320 people have have lost their lives to the disease so far, according to HT’S dashboard.

Active cases is a crucial metric representing the country’s battle against the viral disease because it directly reflects the pressure on the health care system in a region and shows the number of people who are currently carrying the disease.

While the number of active cases is alarming, the rate at which it is rising is even more so. In the past week, the country has added nearly 770,000 active cases to its tally.