According to the Ministry of Health, India reached the 5 million cases mark after reporting 90,123 new infections in the past 24 hours, reports CNN. The country has identified 1 million cases in just 11 days since crossing the 4 million mark on September 5.
There have been 1,290 new coronavirus deaths reported in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll from the virus to 82,066. With a population of 1.35 billion people, India has seen a rapid increase in new cases in the past few weeks. It took nearly six months for the populous country to reach one million cases, yet it added four million in just the past two months.
The bad news is that in a few weeks, India is expected to surpass the United States’ total of more than 6.6 million cases. Health officials are also worried that the country’s death toll from the virus could increase due to the relaxation of lockdown restrictions.
India’s fatality rate is 1.6 percent – far lower than the 5 percent each in the United States and Brazil, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine and University.
State-wise details of Total Confirmed #COVID19 cases
(till 16 September, 2020, 8 AM)➡️States with 1-15000 confirmed cases
➡️States with 15001-115000 confirmed cases
➡️States with 115000+ confirmed cases
➡️Total no. of confirmed cases so far pic.twitter.com/BaRdpDaVXY— #IndiaFightsCorona (@COVIDNewsByMIB) September 16, 2020
Need for oxygen support
An official from India’s Health Ministry says that at least 6.0 percent of the country’s active coronavirus cases need oxygen support, according to Reuters.
Health ministry official Rajesh Bhushan said that supplies are “adequate,” but state governments should monitor them closely. Talking about shortages of oxygen that have been reported, Bhushan said: “The problem happens when at a facility level, if there is no inventory management. Every state should ensure this.”
In the capitol of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, the total requirement of oxygen cylinders stood at 5,000 cylinders compared with 1,000 cylinders in normal times, a government official said. The country’s worst-affected state of Maharashtra has decided to curtail the amount of oxygen cylinders it is supplying to neighboring states to meet its own growing demand.
