The nationwide tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases crossed 1.6 lakh on Thursday to make India the world’s ninth worst hit country by the deadly virus infection, while the death toll went past 4,600 to near China’s official count of 4,634 fatalities.
The first case of the deadly virus infection was discovered in China last December and since then it has spread to virtually all parts of the world infecting more than 57 lakh people globally. More than 3.5 lakh have died too across the world, but very few new cases are being reported in China for the last few days.
In its morning 8 AM update, the Union Health Ministry said the death toll due to COVID-19 across India has risen to 4,531 and the number of cases has climbed to 1,58,333, registering an increase of 194 deaths and 6,566 cases in the 24 hours since Wednesday 8 AM.
It put the number of active COVID-19 cases at more than 86,000 and recoveries at 67,691, giving a recovery rate of around 42.75 per cent.
India has now overtaken Turkey as the ninth worst hit country in terms of total number of cases. India’s count of recoveries is the tenth largest now after the US, Brazil, Germany, Russia, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Iran and China.
In terms of active case, India’s tally is the fifth biggest in the world after the US, Russia, Brazil and France. However, India has also done better than many other countries in terms of the absolute number of tests conducted cumulatively and is placed at the seventh place globally. However, when it comes to the quantum of tests in proportion to the population, India does not figure even among the top-100 countries.
More than 33 lakh tests have been conducted so far in India, as compared to over 1.5 crore in the US, over 97 lakh in Russia, nearly 40 lakh in Germany, close to 38 lakh in the UK, over 36 lakh in Italy and over 35 lakh in Spain. Maharashtra has the highest number of people in quarantine facilities — 6.02 lakh — followed by Gujarat, which has kept a total of 4.42 lakh people in quarantine centres.