NEW DELHI, Jan 27 (NNN-PTI) – India contributed over 10 percent of the world’s over 100 million COVID-19 cases so far. As many as 10,676,838 cases had been registered in the country till yesterday.
The country’s latest death toll stands at 153,587, which is over seven percent of the worldwide deaths.
But, the silver lining is that, the incidence has been on the decline in this country, with a population of over 1.3 billion, over the past few weeks.
After more than seven months, new cases registered in a single day has fallen below the 10,000-mark. As many as 9,102 new cases were detected across the country on Monday.
There has been a remarkable improvement in terms of daily deaths too, as 117 people died on Monday, which is the lowest, in nearly eight months.
Over the past one year, the government ramped up COVID-19 testing across the length and breadth of the country, as over 190 million tests were conducted.
As many as 193,062,694 tests have been conducted till Monday, out of which 725,577 tests were conducted on Monday alone, said the latest data.
On several occasions in recent months COVID-19 testing peaked to over one million per day.
The biggest feat India achieved while combating the pandemic has been the indigenous development of two vaccines – Covishield and Covaxin, and finally launching the massive vaccination drive on Jan 16.
An average of 200,000 people are being vaccinated per day. As per the latest figures, nearly two million people have been immunised, so far, out of which 334,679 beneficiaries were vaccinated through 7,171 sessions on Monday.
Compared to most developed countries in the West and Europe, and considering its huge population base, so far India has been successful in controlling the COVID-19 incidence.
Shailaja Chandra, a former bureaucrat at the health ministry said, keeping in mind its huge population base of 1.3 billion, India has done “extremely well” in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic so far.
“One must not forget that in terms of population, each state equates to one whole European country. I would say that the ratio of the COVID-19 cases and deaths to India’s total population is comparatively far lower than most countries,” she said.
According to her, the reason behind India having over 10.6 million COVID-19 cases so far is the “huge population base.”
Shailaja also commended the way India responded to the pandemic. “When the pandemic broke out last year, we had people coming in from different parts of the globe through as many as 28 airports. Initially it wasn’t feasible to block entry of people at all the airports in one stroke. But eventually a complete Lockdown was imposed restricting entry of people from overseas,” added the former official.
Commenting on the kind of response India presented to combat the pandemic, she said, India has one of the best and well-knit administrative set-ups worldwide that responds quite well in disasters.
About India’s capability of coming out with two COVID-19 vaccines within a span of one year, Shailaja said, India has had a very good track record, as far as developing vaccines to combat viruses is concerned.
In case of the COVID-19 pandemic, official approvals were given comparatively at a quicker pace.
Now all the state governments have taken on themselves the responsibility of ensuring that everyone gets the vaccines as quickly as possible, she concluded.– NNN-PTI
