Covid-19 cases in India have gone from one million to nearly four million in less than two months, with the daily number of cases registering a global record on some days.
The pandemic has spread and the numbers are expected to continue to rise as the country resumes business activity. A few states, including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, are contributing to the maximum caseload. Experts believe that this may also be because of better testing infrastructure in these states.
While deaths per million are 49 in India against a global average of 111, some states have seen an increase in fatalities in the last two weeks. For instance, Delhi and Karnataka have seen an increase of almost 50 and 10 per cent, respectively, in the average daily Covid deaths on a week-on-week basis from August 13 to September 2.
With the total Covid-related deaths in India nearing 70,000, the third highest in the world, experts are worried about states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, especially the rural areas where the virus could cause havoc due to the lack of adequate healthcare infrastructure.