India crosses China in Covid-19 count as cases near 86,000

Guwahati:

India, with 85,940 cases of the coronavirus has now surpassed China which has till date reported 84,038 Covid-19 cases, rising to number 11 in the world as far as the number of cases is concerned. While India has so far reported 2,752 deaths, the Chinese death tally sits at 4,637.

This bears extra significance the first instances of the virus were reported in Wuhan, China. A pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan, China was first reported to the WHO Country Office in China on 31 December, 2019. It was later ascertained as the coronavirus that has since then considerable damage to countries across the globe.

The Indian Ministry of Health has reported that 3,970 new cases detected in the last 2. The total death count on Saturday was 2,752, of which 103 were registered in a single day, according to health ministry data.

While cases in Maharashtra, considered the epicentre of the virus in India, are nearing the 30,000 mark with 1,068 deaths so far, Tamil Nadu has also reported a sharp spike in the number of cases. The Southern state is now reporting the second highest number of cases in the country with 10,108 infections and 71 deaths. Pertinently, Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat  have reported a lion's share of the coronavirus cases in India.

Meanwhile, India has ramped up its testing capacity to nearly 100,00 tests a day. More than 94,000 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of tests conducted so far to over 2.1 million.

In an interesting move, the Health Ministry has suggested a "buddy system" where two of more hospital staff will form a team and share responsibilities for their partner's safety in terms of safety gear and hygiene, among other things.

International Numbers:

Worldometers reports that 4,644,976 people across the world have been infected with the coronavirus. While 1,769,897 people have made recoveries, 308,964 people have succumbed to death so far.

The United States remains the state with the most number of infections and deaths; the country has so far reported 1,484,287 cases of the virus and 88,507 deaths. Spain (with 274,367) and Russia (with 272,043 infections) are second and third in the countrywise list of virus infections.

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