COVID-19: India overtakes Italy to become sixth worst-hit country

New Delhi: India has now overtaken Italy to become the sixth worst affected nation after the number of Covid-19 cases crossed 2.35 lakh and the death toll has surpassed 6,600

India’s COVID-19 count has witnessed a 30.5% increase in the past one week to touch 2.35 lakh confirmed cases, adding a record 9,851 new patients in a single day.

India had crossed China, where the virus emerged late last year, in terms of cases for the ninth spot just a week ago.

The Union health ministry dashboard on Friday night shows the number of Covid-19 cases in India has risen to 226,770 and the death toll is at 6,348.

If India continues to add new cases at the present rate of growth, it could surpass the UK and Spain to become the fourth worst-hit country worldwide within the next week.

According to Johns Hopkins data, the US has the most number of infected people in the world with more than 1.8 million Covid-19 cases. The US has 18,80,703 infections and 1,08,496 deaths. Of these, 485,002 people have been cured of the infection.

In Brazil also, the coronavirus outbreak has been increasing rapidly and it is second only to the US in the list of countries which are most affected by the infection followed by Russia.