Via The Guardian: Global report: India's coronavirus cases pass 5 million | World news. Excerpt:
India’s total coronavirus cases passed 5 million on Wednesday, health ministry data showed, as the pandemic extended its grip on the vast country at an ever faster rate.
With its latest million cases recorded in just 11 days, a world record, India now has 5.02 million infections. Only the United States has more, with 6.59 million.
India has for some time been recording the world’s biggest daily rises in cases, and on Wednesday, the rise was just over 90,000 with a record 1,290 deaths.
According to the Times of India, the country took 167 days to reach one million cases, but the next million came in just 21 days, faster than the US and Brazil. Just 29 days later, India posted 4 million infections, becoming only the third country to reach that mark.
India is now testing about a million people a day, but many experts say this is not enough, and that the true number of infections may be far higher. This has been borne out in several studies in recent weeks measuring antibodies against the virus among the cramped populations of megacities New Delhi and Mumbai.
The India Council for Medical Research, the country’s lead pandemic agency, said last week that its survey had suggested that already in May, 6.5 million people were infected.
The same goes for deaths – 82,066 as of Wednesday, far fewer than the US toll of 195,000 – but many deaths are not properly recorded by authorities even in normal times.
India has one the world’s most poorly funded healthcare systems and the nation of 1.3 billion people is home to some of the most densely populated cities and towns.
