India now among 10 worst countries in Covid-19 cases

NEW DELHI: With the highest oneday national surge of 6,634 new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases, India on Sunday overtook Iran to become the 10th biggest hot spot of the pathogen, which has rapidly swept the globe, claiming new epicentres across continents and leaving health care systems overwhelmed in its wake.

The number of Covid-19 cases in the country stood at 138,474 on Sunday, nearly doubling over the course of 13 days, even as graded relaxations in the fourth phase of the national lockdown were likely to push up the contagion over the coming days.

New Covid-19 cases dropped to zero for the first time on Saturday in China, the country where the pandemic originated, but surged in India and ravaged South America. Experts say that in countries with weak health care systems and impoverished populations, fighting the virus has proven to be difficult.

Latin America has become the latest epicentre of the highly contagious disease. Brazil and Mexico reported record numbers of infections and deaths almost daily this week, fuelling criticism of their governments for limited lockdowns. India’s rate of new Covid-19 cases appears to be tracking that of Brazil. The country’s

daily case count on Sunday was where Brazil’s stood about 15 days ago.

But infections also rose and intensive-care units were swamped in Peru, Chile and Ecuador, all countries praised for imposing early and aggressive shutdowns.

The latest 10,000 infections were recorded in two days. India recorded its first 10,000 Covid-19 cases in nearly 43 days, with a wave of infections beginning in March after three isolated cases were first reported in Kerala in January. It took seven days for the cases to climb from 20,000 to 30,000. The disease’s doubling rate, which is defined as the average period it takes for a twofold rise, decreased from 13.9 days on May 18 – the day the cases hit 100,000 – to 13.1 on Sunday. The doubling rate – which is calculated over a period of last seven days – was four days at the beginning of April. Several experts say the peak of the outbreak in India is yet to come. Across the world, many governments are easing restrictions as they face political challenges and poor economic indicators brought on by the pandemic. In just a few months, the pandemic has killed at least 345,000 people worldwide and infected more than 5.4 million.

Turkey, which stands at the ninth spot in the global tally just above India, imposed its toughest lockdown measures yet starting Saturday for the Eid holiday. In Germany, which has drawn praise for its handling of the outbreak, seven people appeared to have been infected at a restaurant. It would be the first known such case since restaurants started reopening two weeks ago. France, which has the seventh highest number of infections, has allowed religious services to resume after a legal challenge to the government’s ban on gatherings in places of worship.

The US has been the hardesthit country, with about 100,000 Covid-19 deaths so far among 1.6 million confirmed cases.