India on Sunday overtook Iran to become the 10th biggest hot spot in the COVID-19 tally, which has rapidly swept the globe, claiming new epicenters across continents and leaving health care systems overwhelmed in its wake.
Thenumber of Covid-19 cases in the country stood at 138,474 on Sunday, nearlydoubling over the course of 13days, even as graded relaxations in the fourthphase of the national lockdown were likely to push up the contagion over thecoming days.
NewCovid-19 cases dropped to zero for the first time on Saturday in China, thecountry where the pandemic originated, but surged in India and ravaged SouthAmerica. According to experts, countries with weak health care systems andimpoverished populations, fighting the virus have proven to be difficult.
India's trajectory of Covid-19 cases appears to be tracking that of Brazil, according to an analysis of the latest data. India's case count on Sunday was where Brazil's infections stood about 15 days ago.
Thelatest 10,000 infections were recorded in two days. India recorded its first10,000 Covid-19 cases in nearly 43 days, with a wave of infections beginning inMarch after three isolated cases were first reported in Kerala in January. Ittook seven days for the cases to climb from 20,000 to 30,000.
Thedisease's doubling rate, which is defined as the average period it takes for atwofold rise, decreased from 13.9days on May 18– the day the cases hit 100,000– to 13.1on Sunday. The doubling rate – which is calculated over a period oflast seven days – was four days at the beginning of April. Several experts saythe peak of the outbreak in India is yet to come.
Onaverage, India has reported 6,102 cases over the last five days. Thecorresponding number for the previous five days was 4,753. The data, which isbased on official figures from states, shows that about a third of the total caseshave been reported over the past week.
