India Sets Daily Death Records, Coronavirus Cases Reach 25 Million

Lustrust of the COVID-19 corban. (Wikimedia Commons / Behzad Alipour)

JAKARTA - The sad news comes back from India. The total number of positive cases of COVID-19 in the country has crossed the 25 million mark, after recording a record of daily death from COVID-19.

According to Reuters on Tuesday, May 18, India's Ministry of Health recorded a daily increase of 263.533 cases of infection in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, the daily death rate posted a record of 4.329 deaths.

Total India has now recorded 25.228.996 cases of COVID-19 in India, with the total number of deaths reaching 278.751 people.

Despite the decline, experts warn caution should not be lowered, given the lack of testing in rural areas, where the virus is spreading rapidly. For nearly 2 weeks, India recorded an average of more than 400 thousand cases of new COVID-19 infection.

Experts also caution that despite a continued decline in infection cases, there is no certainty that infection has reached a peak, with growing concern both at home and abroad over the new, more contagious variant B1617.

"There are still many parts of the country that haven't reached the peak, they are still going up", World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan was quoted as saying by Reuters in the Hindu newspaper, Monday, May 17.

Meanwhile, cited from Bloomberg, after sweeping various major cities in India in the first wave. COVID-19 hit villages in India in the second wave, with a lack of facilities to deal with the virus.

For example, in Basi, about 45 kilometers from the capital New Delhi, about three-quarters of the village's 5.400 residents have been sick and more than 30 people have died in the last three weeks. There are no health facilities, no doctors, and no oxygen cylinders.

"Most of the deaths in the village are due to not having oxygen available. Sick people are rushed to the district headquarters and the very sick patient has to travel about four hours. Many don't get there on time", said Sanjeev Kumar, head of the local farming community as quoted by The National News.