On a day when India is said to have reported the highest single-day spike of 24,879 coronavirus cases, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, chaired a meeting of Group of Ministers (GOM) on Covid-19, and the official statement that followed said that “India has one of the lowest cases per million (538) and deaths per million (15) compared the global average of 1453 and 68.7, respectively.”
According to the statement made available to the media, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, are the worse affected and “contribute to around 90% of the active caseload.” Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, also account for 86% of total deaths in the country.
Maharashtra’s COVID-19 tally rises to 2,30,599 with addition of 6,875 new cases; 219 deaths take toll to 9,667: Health dept
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 9, 2020
According to a news report in Livemint, India has reached around 7,67,296 cases with around 24,879 new cases in the last 24 hours. News reports state that the death toll has increased to 21,129 with 487 deaths reported in the past 24 hours and 2,69,789 cases are still active.
“Our aim is to reduce and keep the case mortality low,” said Dr Harshvardhan as he chaired the video-conference, attended by Dr. S. Jaishankar, Union Foreign Minister, Hardeep S. Puri, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State, Health & Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State, Chemical and Fertilizers, and Shipping, and Dr. Vinod Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog.
Globally, India continues to be the third worst-hit nation in the world, state news reports. The United States is nearing 3 million, and Brazil, has the second highest number of Covid-19 cases, with over 1.6 million affected. According to data analysed in the report, there are 1.16 crore Covid-19 cases across the globe.
The Indian government via its official ‘India Fights Corona’ social media handle has stated that “India is the second most populous country of the world; with a population of 1.3 billion people, India has been able to manage #COVID19 relatively well.”
#IndiaFightsCorona: #India is the second most populous country of the world; with a population of 1.3 billion people, India has been able to manage #COVID19 relatively well: @MoHFW_INDIA media briefing#StaySafe #IndiaWillWin @ICMRDELHI pic.twitter.com/rExrDEznwy
— #IndiaFightsCorona (@COVIDNewsByMIB) July 9, 2020
The group of ministers has been updated that healthcare infrastructure in the country included, “3914 facilities, with 3,77,737 Isolation beds, 39,820 ICU beds and 1,42,415 oxygen supported beds,along with 20,047 ventilators.” The GOM was also told that “213.55 lakh N95 masks, 120.94 lakh PPEs and 612.57 lakh HCQ tablets,” have already been distributed.
Dr Harsh Vardhan stated that now the focus shall be on “strict containment measures and surveillance; utilising full testing capacity; monitoring of co-morbid and elderly population; predicting emerging hotspots leveraging digital tools such as Aarogya Setu; ensuring seamless patient admission processes; infrastructure preparedness (critical care beds, oxygen, ventilators and logistics).”
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s official Covid-19 update, the number of recovered cases is 1.75 times more than the number of active cases and the National Recovery Rate stands at 62.09%. It has called this a “significant achievement,”. According to the MPHW data of the last 24 hours: “a total of 19,547 patients have been cured” and there are 2,69,789 active cases, and all of them are under medical supervision.
However, while the government makes these statements international studies continue to paint a grim picture. One of the most alarming has been reported by the magazine India Today, which refers to a study by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that concludes that “India might record 2.87 lakh coronavirus cases per day by February 2021,” if a vaccine remains elusive. According to the study, as reported by IT, “India will be the worst affected country due to coronavirus, followed by the United States (95,000 cases per day), South Africa (21,000 cases per day) and Iran (17,000 cases per day) by the end of February 2021.”
According to the study, India will be the worst affected country due to coronavirus, followed by the United States by the end of February 2021https://t.co/MHpZolcNiw
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) July 7, 2020
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