India becomes third nation after US, Brazil to cross 300,000 Covid deaths

One-third of the deaths added in just 23 days of this month

India’s Covid-19 death toll crossed the 300,000-mark on Sunday, with nearly 100,000 deaths having been added just between May 1 and 23, according to the website covid19india.org.

India is the third country after the US and Brazil to cross the grim milestone. The US has so far reported over 589,000 deaths and Brazil 448,000 deaths.

It took India more than a year to reach the 200,000-mark. However, with the severe second wave there has been a huge surge and over 4,000 deaths were recorded daily on several days this month. Union health ministry data said that as of Sunday morning, 3,741 fresh deaths were recorded in the country.

Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi recorded the highest number of deaths. As of Sunday morning, 1o states –the four mentioned above and Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, and Andhra Pradesh – accounted for 74 per cent of the daily deaths.

India’s Covid mortality rate, according to the health ministry, is around 1.13 per cent. The government has said mortality in hospitalised patients has remained the same at around 9.6 per cent in both the first and the second waves. Experts, however, have expressed concern over the new variant, B.1.617, first found in India that is causing more infections and fatalities. 

A view shows shallow sand graves of people, some of which are suspected to have died from the coronavirus disease, on the banks of the river Ganges in Shringaverpur on the outskirts of Prayagraj | Reuters

The rise in the number of infections has meant that the weekly death toll was over 28,000 and was growing at a double-digit rate until recently. There has been some slowdown in the past few days. 

Various reports have flagged under-reporting of deaths in many states. A study by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated that India would see one million Covid deaths by August 1.