India joins the US and Brazil to record more than 1 million Coronavirus cases. It has been reporting over 30,000 fresh cases for two consecutive days. Brazil has been adding nearly 40,000 cases per day whereas the US is adding around 68,000 in a single day. India’s single day cases are comparatively less but it could still surpass Brazil in another week.
Infections in India are growing at a faster rate. On Thursday, infections rose at 3.4% – nearly twice of Brazil (1.8%) and considerably higher than that of the US (1.9%). If the number of cases continues to rise at a steady rate, India would be reporting around 52,000 cases in a day by the end of July. By then, Brazil will be adding 45,000 infections in a day.
Even though the testing has been ramped up to 3.26 lakh a day, the cases aren’t reducing in number. On the other hand, positivity has risen to 10% from 9.3% on July 9.
In the US, the positivity rates initially were dipping from a high of 25% as the infection was reigned in but subsequently started increasing as the lockdowns were lifted off. At present, the US is doing 7.3 lakh tests daily. In India, testing per million is still the lowest at 9.2 people per thousand, whereas the US tests at 135 people per thousand and Brazil tests 23 people per thousand. India needs to ramp up testing efforts in order to curb the spread.
