India crosses 10 lakh Covid-19 cases

India on Thursday crossed the grim landmark of 10 lakh Covid-19 cases as the disease has spread rapidly in states such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Andra Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan.

For the second consecutive day, India added more than 30,000 new cases as the DH Covid-19 Tracker put the total infections reported across the country at 10,01,504 at 9:00 p.m. The disease had also claimed 25,565 lives so far.

India is the third country after the US and Brazil to report more than 10 lakh Covid-19 cases and the eighth country to report more than 25,000 deaths.

The infection was spreading faster in Maharashtra which has been reporting more than 8000 cases every day with Pune alone adding 2000 patients everyday. Tamil Nadu was reporting approximately 4,500 new cases daily, while Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were adding more than 3000 and 2000 new patients every day respectively.

Infections have also been spreading rapidly in Uttar Pradesh which has been reporting a daily increase of more than 1,600 cases, while Telangana and West Bengal have been adding more than 1,500 cases daily.

States such as Goa, Kerala which had controlled the spread of the infections earlier, have been reporting a surge since the ‘Unlock’ phase began last month.

However, the Health Ministry stated only one-third of the total cases of Covid-19 were under active medical supervision and nearly two-third patients had already recovered and discharged from healthcare facilities.

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said India had ramped up testing capabilities since the coronavirus infection was first reported in January.

“As on date, we are testing more than 3.2 lakh samples every day,” the minister said adding that the Centre is going to ramp up testing capabilities further to test 10 lakh samples per day in the coming 12 weeks.