India has entered the list of 10 countries worst hit by the novel coronavirus after record spike in the number of cases for four consecutive days, pushing the tally of infections to over 1.38 lakh, surpassing Iran, according to the John Hopkins University data.
The country registered 154 deaths and a record jump of 6,977 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 1,38,845 and death toll to 4,021 on Monday with some experts attributing the spike in cases to the lockdown relaxations, including partial resumption of rail services and road transport along with the return of the migrant workers, while others say the rise in cases is due to enhanced testing capacity in the country.
Domestic passenger flights also resumed operations on Monday after a gap of two months.
India is the tenth most affected nation by the pandemic after US, Russia, UK, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Turkey and France, as per the JHU data.
The country has recorded 6,088, 6,654, 6,767 and 6977 on May 22, 23, 24 and 25 respectively. Also, the number of RT-PCR tests for detection of Covid-19 in the country crossed the 30-lakh mark on Monday.
Commenting on the partial resumption of rail and road transport services, Dr Chandrakant S Pandav, former president of Indian Public Health Association and Indian Association of Preventive and social medicine said these relaxations will create an enabling environment for the coronavirus infection to flourish.
“Now, the government will have to ensure strong surveillance and monitoring so as to curb the infection which otherwise will overwhelm the healthcare system,” said Pandav, former HOD of the Centre for Community Medicine at AIIMS.
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