COVID spreading in rural India; record daily rises in infections, deaths

World 02:40 PM - 2021-05-06

Photo credit: Reuters

Hopes that India’s deadly second wave of COVID-19 was about to peak were swept away on Thursday as it posted record daily infections and deaths and as the virus spread from cities to villages across the world’s second-most populous nation.

 

India reported a record 412,262 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours and a record 3,980 deaths. COVID-19 infections have now surged past 21 million, with a total death toll of 230,168, health ministry data show.

 

Government modelling had forecast a peak in second wave infections by Wednesday.

 

"This temporarily halts speculations of a peak," Rijo M John, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management in the southern state of Kerala, said on Twitter.

 

With hospitals scrabbling for beds and oxygen in response to the surge in infections, the World Health Organization said in a weekly report that India accounted for nearly half the coronavirus cases reported worldwide last week and a quarter of the deaths.

 

India has 3.45 million active cases.

 

Medical experts say India's actual figures could be five to 10 times the official tallies.

 

India's COVID-19 crisis has been most acute in the capital, New Delhi, among other cities, but in rural areas - home to nearly 70% of India's 1.3 billion people - limited public healthcare is posing more challenges.

 

Several states have imposed various levels of social restrictions to try and stem infections, but the federal government has refused to impose a national lockdown.

 

 

 

PUKmedia \ Reuters