With registering 2,93,754 Coronavirus cases on Thursday evening, India not only overtook the UK but is now ranked at number four in the list of nations worst hit by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Up till Thursday afternoon, the UK was at the fourth spot with 2,91,588 cases. Now only Russia, Brazil and the US are ahead of India where Russia has 4.93 lakh cases, Brazil 7.72 lakh cases, and the US is at the top of the list with a whopping 20 lakh plus cases.
What is even more disturbing is the fact that while India entered the list of top 10 worst-hit countries on May 24, it took only 18 days to reach the fourth slot, thus implying that the Coronavirus positive cases have been increasing more and more rapidly.
The last few weeks have witnessed more than 9000 cases with the last 24 hours recording a spike of 9,996 cases, the highest ever in a day.
The surge of cases came amid the world’s biggest lockdown.
The Central government on Thursday had reiterated that India is not yet in the stage of community transmission of Coronavirus.
The assertion came as India has been recording nearly 10,000 cases per day since the past two weeks and cities like Delhi and Mumbai saw a surge in COVID-19 cases, brewing speculation.
However, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in a joint briefing with the Health Ministry said India is “definitely not” in the community transmission stage.
Further, in comparison with other affected countries, the ICMR stated that India’s mortality and cases per lakh population are amongst the lowest in the world at 0.59 per cent and 20.77 per cent respectively.