Late Thursday evening, India became the third country after the United States and Brazil to record a million COVID-19 cases. While it achieved this feat much after the United States, the past fortnight has seen a quite the jump.
On June 26, 2020, India touched 5 lakh cases. It took 39 days to move from 1 lakh to 5 lakh. The jump from 5 lakh to 10 lakh took 20 days. And experts believe that India could touch 20 lakh or 2 million cases by the end of August if the rate of people getting infected with COVID-19 continues at the rate it is moving at.
Experts say that the high numbers are due to the fact that there has been more testing in India. The White House, too, acknowledged that India has tested the highest number of COVID-19 cases after the United States.
However, if you look at the numbers carefully, India’s testing in terms of numbers may be high, but when you look at the numbers per million, it’s still low compared to several countries, even if the Indian Council of Medical Research claims to have complied with the World Health Organisation’s guidelines.
The Union Health Ministry said there has been a continuous decline in daily growth rate of COVID-19 cases from 31.28 per cent in the beginning of April to 3.49 per cent in mid-July. "Rising recovery rate, from 52% in mid-June to more than 63% in mid-July, is aiding continuous decline in COVID-19 active cases," the ministry said in a tweet.
Here's a timeline of India’s coronavirus cases
January 30, 2020: India reports its first COVID-19 case in Kerala. This rose to three cases on February 3. The patients had returned from the Chinese province of Wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic.
March 12, 2020: India reports its first coronavirus fatality. A 76-year-old man with a travel history to Saudi Arabia becomes the first victim
March 15, 2020: India reports 100 COVID-19 cases
April 14, 2020: India reports 10,000 COVID-19 cases
May 19, 2020: India touches 1 lakh coronavirus cases. It took 110 days to reach this number from the first case announced on January 30.
June 27, 2020: In 39 days, the number jumped from 1 lakh to 5 lakh cases
July 16, 2020: India crosses 10 lakh COVID-19 cases
