Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
India has seen its highest jump in deaths related to the novel coronavirus in a 24-hour period following its highest daily increase, the Health Ministry says.
A total of 73 people affected by the virus had died since Tuesday morning, taking the country-wide toll to 1,007.
The Wednesday daily increase in cases, 1,897, was the highest in weeks. The number of positive cases crossed 31,000.
The highest number of the cases was reported from Maharashtra, largely in its two biggest cities Mumbai and Pune, and the national capital New Delhi. The big cities top the list of cases and there are no signs of the pandemic abating there.
With massive slums and a shaky healthcare system, there were fears India would be ravaged by the pandemic that has killed more than 214,000 people worldwide.
A lack of testing and many other factors mean that India’s official toll of 1,007 deaths could be far below the real number of coronavirus victims.
Still, the scale of the outbreak in India is dwarfed by the United States or large Western European countries.
One possible factor is that India imposed a lockdown on its 1.3 billion people on March 25, when there were 606 confirmed cases and 10 deaths, and it has been rigidly enforced.
The government says the number of infections could have reached 100,000 without it.
But the head of a government think-tank said on Wednesday that its 1.3 billion people, strained from weeks of lockdown, were not experiencing the feared exponential surge in infections.
Still, experts caution that no one has an accurate picture of the pandemic in remote rural villages and deep in slums.
Even in normal times, accurately recording deaths or causes in India can be a difficult task, where many poor people fall sick and die without entering a hospital or seeing a doctor. Just under half of the country’s estimated 10 million annual deaths are not recorded.
Pakistan records deadliest day of pandemic
Pakistan registered its deadliest day from the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday, with 26 people dying of COVID-19. Pakistan has so far reported a total of 15,282 cases, including 335 deaths.
The country, which the World Bank said could tip into recession in the current fiscal year, has opened 600 export industries, mainly in Punjab and Sindh province, to reduce the pain for businesses and workers.
In Afghanistan, Farhad Bayani, a spokesman for the prison administration, said on Wednesday that at least 46 people tested positive in Kabul prisons. Afghanistan has reported a total of 1,828 cases, including 60 deaths.
Elsewhere in the region, Bangladesh has so far reported 7,103 cases, including 163 deaths.
The number of people around the world confirmed to have the coronavirus has risen to more than three million, and at least 217,000 have died, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 929,000 people have recovered.
