Covid count crosses 1-lakh mark

India joins 11 countries that reported 1 lakh infections; lockdown slowed spread but death curve turns steeper

India crossed the crucial one-lakh mark in the number of Covid-19 cases on Monday, 55 days after the lockdown was imposed to retard the spread of the disease.

With this, India has joined the highly unenviable club of 11 countries that have seen more than one lakh people getting infected by the Coronavirus, which traces its origin to the Chinese industrial city of Wuhan.

The United States tops the list with 15,29,291 Covid-19 patients and 91,005 deaths, followed by Russia, Spain, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, Turkey and Iran with 1,22,492 cases and 7,057 fatalities. On Monday, India had 1,00,326 cases and 3,155 deaths.

The first Coronavirus infection was reported in India on January 30 from Hyderabad. While it took 43 days for the Covid infection count to reach 100 on March 14, it took just 14 days to jump 10 times on March 28. The cases have risen by further 10 times to cross 10,000 in 16 days on April 13. The lockdown, however, appears to have slowed down the spread as data shows that the cases have multiplied by 10 in 35 days to touch one lakh on May 18.

However, the infection curve seems to have got slightly steeper after April 18 and on May 5. If the curve had not got steeper, India might have touched the onelakh mark in June. This slowing rise is attributed to the lockdown. Compared to other countries, India took a long time to reach the one-lakh Coronavirus cases mark.

India has also done better than many Western democracies to contain mortality rate to 3.1 per cent. The mortality rate in France is 15.65 per cent, followed by the UK 14.21 per cent, Italy 14.15 per cent, Spain 9.95 per cent, Brazil 6.64 per cent and the US 5.95 per cent.

However, there are also claims that many infected cases and deaths are being under-reported or unreported in India, casting doubts over the reliability of official numbers in the country.