NEW DELHI : India has reported nearly two million Covid-19 cases in August, the highest monthly tally in the world since the pandemic began.
August was also the worst month for fatalities with 28,000 virus deaths.
With 3.6 million confirmed cases, India has the third-highest caseload in the world.
The government continues to lift restrictions to try to boost an economy that lost millions of jobs because of a grinding lockdown which began in March.
In August, India saw an average of 64,000 cases per day – a 84% hike from average daily cases in July, according to official data.
This number is the highest in the world – for example, the US, which has the most number of cases, saw 47,000 daily cases on average last month.
The spike in numbers comes as the country expands its testing amid concerns that the virus has started to spread in many rural areas as well.
A sudden upsurge in new cases in four states – Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha – has prompted the federal government to deploy teams there, local media reported.
Maharashtra, the epicentre of the outbreak in India, continues to lead the pack with nearly 800,000 confirmed cases.
© BBC August saw the highest number of daily cases
Even though some states have rapidly ramped up their testing capabilities, India’s testing rate – at around 32,000 tests per million – is still on the lower end of the spectrum.
But India’s recovery rate remains encouraging – out of every 100 confirmed cases, nearly 77 have recovered so far.
Simultaneously, the number of deaths continues to be low – for every 100 confirmed cases, just under two have died from the virus. (microsoft news)
Regarding the repratriation flight being cancelled it’s a tragedy they are starving and have no place to go actually they brought in the foreign currency how could the govt.be so heartless? You people just pretend to care and talk a lot but nothing is really done except form committees !
Over to you Mr president bring back our citizens .