5 million people infected in India as oubreak soars
India’s confirmed NEW DELHI — coronavirus infections passed 5 million on Wednesday, still soaring and testing the feeble healthcare system in tens of thousands of impoverished towns and villages.
The world’s second-most populous country has added more than1millioncases this monthalone andis expected to become the pandemic’s worst-hit country within weeks, surpassing theUnited States, wheremore than 6.6 million people have been infected.
India’s Health Ministry reported 90,123 new cases in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 5,020,359, about 0.35% of the nation’s nearly 1.4 billion people. Its record dailyhighof 97,570caseswas reported on Sept. 11.
The ministry said 1,290 more people died in the past 24hours, foratotalof82,066, which is the third-highest toll in the world. Experts warned that India’s fatality rate could increase in coming weeks with lockdown restrictions relaxed except in high-risk areas.
But authorities ruled out imposing a second countrywide lockdown as recoveries were growing at more than 78%. Its fatality rate is 1.6%, far lower than 3% in the United States and Brazil, according to tallies by Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Gagandeep Kang, an infectious diseases expert from Christian Medical College in the southern Indian state of Vellore, said the increase in cases in India was inevitable. But she said the country stillhas a chance to limit the growth through a strategy of testing and isolating affffffffffffected places.
She said “the goal was for India to do enough testing to bring down the test positivity rate, or fraction of tests that test positive to less than 5% or even less than 1%.”
Most of India’s deaths are concentrated in its large cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Pune. But smaller urban centers in Mahrashtra such as Nagpur or Jalgaonhave also reported more than 1,000 deaths.