India coronavirus explosion sees it overtake Brazil as country with second highest number of Covid-19 cases in world
INDIA has overtaken Brazil to suffer the second highest number of Covid-19 cases in the world.
An explosion of 90,802 new cases were registered overnight, taking the total number of coronavirus infections to 4.2million.
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India has taken just 13 days to rise from three to four million cases.
By comparison, it took Brazil 25 days and the US 16 days to see the same numbers.
India is now the pandemic's second-worst-hit country with a daily record of new coronavirus cases, trailing behind the United States.
However, less than a quarter of these cases are active and the recovery rate is more than 77 per cent, the Indian health ministry reports.
The steep rise comes as India increases efforts to head off economic disaster and the Delhi Metro transit resumed operations after five months.
Deaths in India have been relatively low with a fatality rate of 1.7 per cent - one of the lowest rates in the world and attributed to the country's younger population, a potentially less virulent strain of COVID-19, strong immune systems and high heat levels.
On Monday, India's health ministry said 1,016 people died of COVID-19, taking total deaths to 71,642.
There have been consistently more than 1,000 deaths reported over the last five days.
The government has ramped up its testing capabilities with over a million tests every day, which many attribute to the reason for the spike in daily cases.
Large numbers of cases are now showing up in smaller towns, and cities across rural India.
Dr Harendra Kushwaha is in charge of the COVID-19 rapid response team in Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, overseeing 200,000 people.
Dr Kushwaha told : "These are corona warriors who are risking their lives meeting COVID-19 patients and their families.
"People don't know if they are carrying the virus and may spread it indiscriminately. We have to break the chain."
India's public health care system is struggling under the weight of the cases. and public health care has been neglected in the country for decades.
Just over 1 per cent of the nation's GDP has been spent on public health care and two-thirds of the population rely on private medical care.
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India's poor are most vulnerable, as are those who work in the informal sector which makes up around 80 per cent of the country's working population.
India had one of the strictest lockdowns but is now easing restrictions.
