India Ranks 3rd Globally in COVID-19 Cases: How Did We Get Here?

As of 6 July, India is ranked at 3rd position when it comes to total number of coronavirus cases in the world.

(Photo: The Quint)

As of 7 July, India ranked at the 3rd position when it comes to total number of coronavirus cases in the world, behind only the US and Brazil. On 7 July, the total number of confirmed cases in India stood at 7.19 lakh.

The top five most affected countries in the world are the US, Brazil, India, Russia and Peru.

It took India 1.5 months to go from the 10th position to number 3. As on 25 May, India had 1.38 lakh cases. It took just 12 days for India to rise from 10th to 5th position. On 7 June, India had 2.46 lakh cases. Now, in less than a month, India has gone from 5th position to number 3.

If we follow the trajectory, is India headed to take over as the most impacted country with COVID cases?

(Photo: The Quint)

When Was India's First Case Detected?

According to Johns Hospkin's University, the US saw its first case 164 days ago, Brazil 130 days ago and India had its first case on 30 January, 157 days ago.

(Photo: The Quint)

Where does India stand when it comes to recovery of cases?

(Photo: The Quint)

Case Fatality Ratio

The number of cases in India are rising at an exponential speed. While some experts have spoken about July being the peak, others have explained that for a country the size of India, peak will happen at different times for different states.

Despite the numbers though, case fatality ratio in India remains low. India's CFR remains at 2.8%. When you look at the numbers per 100,000 people, the number is 1.46.

Comparatively, Brazil's case fatality ratio is at 4.0%, and deaths per 100,000 is 30.97. In the US, CFR is at 4.5% and deaths per 100,000 people is 39.72 people.

(Photo: The Quint)

(Photo: The Quint)

Besides the US and Brazil, maximum number of deaths have been reported in European countries. According to the available data, maximum number of deaths have been reported in the US, followed by Brazil, UK, Italy, Mexico, France, Spain, and then India.

While the rest of the world saw a fall in the number of cases by 2% as on 25 June, India and Brazil saw a rise in the number of cases by 4%. According to stats shared by European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and Johns Hopkins University, India's rate of growth of COVID cases has been consistently higher in comparison to the US since 2nd week April. Since June, India's numbers grew faster than Russia.

Brazil has seen a drop in the number of confirmed COVID cases in the last few days, indicating perhaps that the peak might have been reached. While the US and India continue to see a growth in COVID numbers.

(Photo: The Quint)

(The article was first published in FIT and has been republished with permission.)