Saturday 27 / July / 2024
New Delhi: The total number of COVID-19 cases in India has risen to 85,940 on Saturday, which is more than the cases found in China.
China, the epicentre of the pandemic, had enforced a strict lockdown and since late March 2020, the country as seen a reduction in the rate of contagion.
Leaders, entrepreneurs and the middle-class working population of India have appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to re-open the hard-hit economy. However, despite the requests and appeals, the government may extend the lockdown with fewer restrictions beyond 17th May, the expiration date for Lockdown 3.0.
The death rate in India has been far better as per the Indian Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, with 2,752 fatalities compared to 4,600 deaths in China.
The minister also encouraged the slowing rate of the infection, which now takes 11 days for doubling as compared to three and a half days before the lockdown was imposed.
“Clearly the situation has improved due to lockdown. We have utilised this period of lockdown to accelerate public health measures such as case detection, contact tracing, isolation and management of cases,” Vardhan said.
Among the total, a third of the infections are from Maharashtra, especially Mumbai being the worst-hit city, followed by states like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Delhi.
