India on Sunday achieved a milestone no country will be proud of – it is now the seventh worst-hit nation by the coronavirus pandemic.
It took about a week for India to move from 10th place to seventh on the global tally of coronavirus disease cases. And in this period, the country has seen its Covid-19 tally increase by almost 50,000.
On May 25, when India overtook Iran to become the 10th worst-hit nation, the number of cases stood at 1.38 lakh. On Sunday, it reached almost 1.82 lakh.
However, India is still way behind the US, the country hit the hardest by the coronavirus pandemic. It has over 18 lakh Covid-19 positive cases. At number 2 is Brazil with five lakh cases and Russia with four lakh cases is placed third.
India, despite its large population, has not been affected as badly by the coronavirus pandemic as many other countries. In his monthly radio address ‘Mann ki Baat’ on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised this fact and hailed the help being provided by individuals to others. He also said that the government is opening up the economy after four phases of lockdown but asked people to exercise caution.
The recovery rate in India too has increased to 42 per cent from 47 per cent a week ago. The Union health ministry has said that India has also not seen the rapid spread as reported in many other countries.
India, meanwhile, registered its highest single-day spike of Covid-19 cases on Sunday with 8,380 new infections reported in the last 24 hours (between Saturday and Sunday).
The number of active Covid-19 cases stood to 89,995, while 86,983 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the Union health ministry said.
The death toll has gone up by 193 since Saturday morning, of which 99 deaths were reported from Maharashtra, 27 from Gujarat, 18 from Delhi, nine each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, seven from West Bengal, six each from Tamil Nadu and Telangana, five from Bihar, three from Uttar Pradesh, two from Punjab, and one each from Haryana and Kerala.
