India's Covid-19 tally could reach 300,000 by Friday

THE death count due to Covid-19 in India has nearly doubled in the last 17 days. The number of infections is now twice what it was 16 days ago, shows the health ministry data. The country could hit the 300,000-mark by Friday.

The death toll due to Covid-19 rose to 7,466 in India, while the number of cases climbed to 266,598 after the country registered 266 fatalities and a record single-day spike of 9,987 cases till Tuesday (9), according to the health ministry data.

India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the Covid-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK, according to the Johns Hopkins University data.   The number of active novel coronavirus cases stands at 129,917, while 129,214 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.

The state of Haryana leads surge in cases, deaths over past week. Meanwhile, in Maharashtra, the number of coronavirus cases in Mumbai went past 50,000, including over 1,700 deaths

The continuing rise in cases poses a severe challenge for India’s strained medical capacity and overburdened health system.

Despite a much slower case doubling rate than earlier in the outbreak, new infections and deaths are now rising faster in India than in most other badly-hit countries. Among countries with death counts greater than 4,000, India has recorded the second fastest increase in deaths over the past week and the biggest spike in confirmed cases.

At 3,169 deaths, Maharashtra has the highest toll in the country so far due to the Covid-19, followed by Gujarat (1,280), Delhi (874), Madhya Pradesh (414), and West Bengal (405). These five states have recorded 82 percent of all covid-related deaths in India so far. Deaths have surged the most in Haryana, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu in the last seven days.

Maharashtra has 44,384 patients still under treatment, the most in the country, followed by Delhi with 17,712 and Tamil Nadu with 15,416 active cases. Gujarat is fourth on the list with 5,309 active cases and West Bengal fifth with 4,743 cases.

Among the ten states with most active cases, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, and Karnataka have seen the highest percentage spike over the past seven days.