India Claims A Grim Milestone As Its COVID-19 Death Toll Surpasses 100,000 Mark
Harrowing.
By Sadho Ram — 03 Oct 2020, 03:37 PM
In India, COVID-19 has now killed over 100,000 people
With total deaths at 100,875 at the of writing this story, India is only the third country in the world to reach that grim milestone, after the US with 213,524 deaths and Brazil with 145,431 deaths.
The country is closely followed by Mexico, where the coronavirus has killed over 78,490 people.
According to a report in BBC, September was India's worst month on record: on average 1,100 Indians died every day from the coronavirus
Comparatively, there were 755 average daily deaths in the US and 713 in Brazil for the same period.
One in every five fatalities in the world in the past week has come from India, making the country the biggest contributor to the global death tally at 19%.
India reported its first death due to COVID-19 on 12 March. Its 100,000th fatality came 204 days later.
All 10 of the worst-hit districts so far are urban which account for nearly 80% of India's death toll for the virus, and the same goes for those reporting the highest case fatality rates, said the BBC report.
The death toll, however, is expected to keep rising as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing ahead with a full opening of the country
According to a Reuters report, movie theatres were allowed to re-open at half capacity this week and authorities can decide to re-open schools from the middle of this month.
The Indian government, led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is facing a collapsing economy after imposing a tough lockdown contain the spread of the virus in late March. It, however, proved unsuccessful.
