(TibetanReview.net, May18’21) – Even as the number of fresh infections per day continue to fall, India on May 17 became only the second country after the US to cross 25 million Covid infections since the beginning of the pandemic, noted the timesofidnia.com May 18. Brazil is the third with about 15.6 million cases.
The report said comparison with previous data showed that India added the recent 5 million cases in a record 14 days. While the previous 5 million cases, when India crossed 20 million benchmark, were added in 15 days, it took 121 days to add the preceding 5 million cases that took India’s cumulative tally from 10 million to 15 million.
Experts believe the B.1.617 variant was driving the huge wave in infections seen across India in recent weeks. The country now makes up 50% of Covid-19 cases and 30% of deaths from the virus globally, reported edition.cnn.com May 17, citing the World Health Organization (WHO).
B.1.617 was the fourth strain to be declared a “variant of concern” by the WHO; the others are B.1.1.7, which was first seen in the UK; B.1.351, first detected in South Africa; and P.1, first found in Brazil.
That classification means a variant may be more transmissible or cause more severe disease, fail to respond to treatment, evade immune response or fail to be diagnosed by standard tests, the report noted.
In interviews with representatives from more than 18 towns and villages in different parts of the country, officials outlined the scale of the carnage — from entire families wiped out to bloated bodies floating down the Ganges River to farmland left untended due to a lack of workers, said the the timesofidnia.com in another report May 18.
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The latest data from India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare show that there were 263,533 new Covid-19 cases and 4,329 new deaths in the country in the past 24 hours recorded on May 18 at 8 AM, taking their cumulative totals to 25,228,996 cases and 278,719 deaths respectively.
Total recoveries have improved to reach nearly 21.6 million (21,596,512 or 85.60%) had while active cases have declined to reach over 3.25 million (3,353,765, or 13.29% of the total). The case fatality rate has remained at 1.10%.
All but four of the 23 states with total caseloads of more than 100,000 have reported varying levels of decline in active cases.
The active caseload was at its lowest at 1,35,926 on Feb 12 comprising 1.25% of the total infections.
Twenty-four states/Union Territories have reported more than 1,000 new cases in the last 24 hours, namely Karnataka (38,603), Tamil Nadu (33,075), Maharashtra (26,616), Kerala (21,402), West Bengal (19,003), Andhra Pradesh (18,561), Rajasthan (11,597), Odisha (10,757), Uttar Pradesh (9,345), Haryana (9,488), Gujarat (7,135), Punjab (6,881), Chattisgarh (6,577), Assam (6,394), Madhya Pradesh (5,921), Bihar (5,920), Delhi (4,524), Telangana (3,961), Uttarakhand (3,719), Himachal Pradesh (3,546), Jammu and Kashmir (3,344), Jharkhand (2,507), Goa (1,562), and Puducherry (1,446).
Nine other states/Union Territories have reported more than 100 new cases in the last 24 hours, namely Tripura (746), Meghalaya (634), Chandigarh (620), Manipur (330), Arunachal Pradesh (304), Nagaland (273), Mizoram (239), Lakshdweep (219), and Ladakh (130).
Thirty-two states/Union Territories have reported 3 or more Covid-19 deaths each in the last 24 hours, namely Maharashtra (1,000), Karnataka (476), Delhi (340), Tamil Nadu (335), Uttar Pradesh (271), Uttarakhand (223), Punjab (191), Rajasthan (157), Chattisgarh (149), West Bengal (147), Haryana (114), Andhra Pradesh (109), Bihar (96), Assam (92), Kerala (87), Gujarat (81), Madhya Pradesh (77), Jammu and Kashmir (73), Jharkhand (60), Himachal Pradesh (58), Goa (53), Telangana (30), Puducherry (28), Odisha (22), Meghalaya (16), Manipur (14), Nagaland (7), Chandigarh (6), Sikkim (5), Tripura (4), Arunachal Pradesh (4), and Mizoram (3). The rest of the states/Union Territories have reported 1 or no death each.
India is currently the country with the world’s second highest number of Covid-19 cases after the USA, and the third highest number of deaths after the USA and Brazil in cumulative numbers.
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The cumulative total of Covid-19 cases among Tibetans in India and Nepal has remained unchanged at 3,510, according to the tally of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) on its Tibet.net website May 18. Of the total number of cases, 2,136 had recovered, 1,286 were active. A total of 88 have died.
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Across the world the number of Covid-19 cases totaled more than 163 million (163,666,489) and the deaths nearly 3.40 million (3,391,032), according to the tally of Johns Hopkins University as of May 18, 2021 at 2:50 PM.
