Fears of a surge in COVID-19 infections in the country
The HinduAlmost eight months into the COVID-19 pandemic and with infections still far from under control, there is little clarity on the trajectory of the virus and its spread in India. On November 10, the day of the most recent official briefing, mediapersons were informed that a record 12 crore tests had been conducted, that the recovery rate was 92 per cent, and that active cases comprised only six per cent of the total number of confirmed cases while the cumulative positivity rate was 7.18 per cent. Of 219 countries, there are at least 35 countries, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, where cases per million population are much less than that of India. There were 101 out of 219 countries where the deaths per million population were lower than India’s; in some cases, the numbers were in single digits. Out of 49 countries in Asia, only in 15 countries the deaths per million rate exceeded India’s, while the others reported a death rate much less than India’s.