Lower testing pushes India’s single-day Covid tally off peak
ON SUNDAY, INDIA CONDUCTED 1.47 MN COVID TESTS, THIS MONTH’S LOWEST YET, COMPARED WITH 1.7 MN FOR THE FIRST EIGHT DAYS OF MAY
NEW DELHI: India is testing and vaccinating its citizens at a lower rate compared with recent months, a portent for the fight against Covid-19 in the second-most populous country in the world, even as the central government said the country is the fastest globally to administer 170 million coronavirus vaccine doses.
The Union health ministry said it took China took 119 days and the US 115 days for reaching the same vaccine landmark. India, it said, took 114 days to administer 170,176,603 doses. By Monday, the world’s largest vaccine-producing nation had fully vaccinated just over 34.8 million, or about 2.5%, of a population, government data showed.
On Sunday, the country conducted 1.47 million tests for Covid-19, this month’s lowest yet, data from the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) showed. The figure compared with a daily average of 1.7 million for the first eight days of May.
This pushed India’s daily case trajectory off its peak. In the 24 hours to Monday, the country saw 366,161 new Covid-19 infections and 3,754 deaths, taking India’s tally to 22.66 million with 246,116 deaths as hospitals run out of oxygen and beds and morgues and crematoria overflow.
NEW DELHI : India is testing and vaccinating its citizens at a lower rate compared with recent months, a portent for the fight against Covid-19 in the secondmost populous country in the world, even as the Centre said the country is the fastest globally to administer 170 million coronavirus vaccine doses.
The Union health ministry said it took China 119 days and the US 115 days for reaching the same vaccine landmark. India, it said, took 114 days to administer 170,176,603 doses. By Monday, the world’s largest vaccine-producing nation had fully vaccinated just over 34.8 million, or about 2.5%, of a population, government data showed.
On Sunday, the country conducted 1.47 million tests for Covid-19, this month’s lowest yet, data from the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research showed. The figure compared with a daily average of 1.7 million for the first eight days of May. This pushed daily case trajectory off its peak. In the 24 hours to Monday, the country saw 366,161 new Covid-19 infections and 3,754 deaths, taking India’s tally to 22.66 million with 246,116 deaths as hospitals run out of oxygen and beds and morgues and crematoria overflow.
Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi are among 10 states that account for nearly 74% of the 366,161 new Covid-19 cases registered in a day, the ministry said.
On the other hand, India’s total Covid-19 active caseload reached 3,745,237, with Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Haryana, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh cumulatively accounting for over 82% of such cases.
Cases have risen 3.6 times in the last one month and deaths 6.3 times, while testing has increased only 1.5 times and daily vaccine doses fallen 38%, Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, said.
Experts agree that the country is already undercounting its sick and dying.
The data show that “we are loosing momentum in fighting the virus”, said Rijo M John, a Kerala-based economist and public health policy analyst who consults for the World Health Organization. “The virus is getting ahead of us and you are not able to catch up cases with sufficient number of tests. This is not a good situation for the country.”