The Cause Of India To Surpass Brazil To Become The Second Highest Country For COVID-19 Cases On Earth

Illustration (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - India overtook Brazil to rank second in the countries with the most COVID-19 cases in the world, after the United States. What is the reason?

India records up to 90,082 cases per day. And the number argued will continue to grow. The addition of these cases did not make the government then afraid to reopen subway services that were closed for months.

Launching Reuters, Monday, September 7, the number of COVID-19 cases in India was 4.2 million while in the US it was 6.2 million. However, India is classified as having a mortality rate due to COVID-19 which is not too high.

More than 60 percent of active cases are from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state. Meanwhile, experts say the high number of cases in India recently has not yet reached the peak, because cases of COVID-19 are still increasing in the world's second most populous country.

Many factors have made the COVID-19 case in India explode. One of them is the limited access to health services. This is the case both in big cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, as well as in rural areas.

"It's now a double burden," said Rajib Dasgupta, a professor of public health at Jawaharlal Nehru University. "(The number of COVID-19 cases) in urban areas is not slowing down and rural areas are increasing," he added.

Record records

The spike in cases on Monday September 7 was India's third consecutive daily record. The government tally shows the number of COVID-19 cases in India surpasses Brazil, which has more than 4.1 million cases.

But between Brazil and the US, India's death rate is much lower. In India, the death toll from COVID-19 was recorded at 71,642. That figure is below the US and Brazil death rates, which stood at 193,000 and 126,000, respectively.

Meanwhile, India said the increase also reflected higher testing rates nationwide. The authorities added that the high rate of recovery indicates the testing, tracking and treatment strategy was working and the situation was under control in the country.

Stations in New Delhi looked deserted as metro train services opened after a hiatus of more than five months. Meanwhile the bar will open from Wednesday 9 September. Partial metro train services have also opened in the western city of Ahmedabad, the northern city of Lucknow and several other places, after nearly six months of being suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pressure is mounting for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to pull the economy out of a deep freeze following a tight lockdown in March. Kuncitara caused business closures, cost millions of people their jobs, brought about a 24 percent contraction in June 2020 quarterly GDP.

When PM Modi ordered 1.4 billion Indians to stay indoors, the entire economy shut down within four hours. Millions lose their jobs instantly and tens and thousands of migrant workers, lose money and fear starvation. They then left the city and returned to the village. The unprecedented migration has not only penetrated the Indian economy but has also spread the virus to remote parts of the country.