India in the fight against COVID-19 has lately shown an optimistic and reassuring graph. The graph of daily new coronavirus cases and related deaths has shown a decreasing trend in the last three months after peaking in mid-September. In the week ending December 27, 2020, the country reported a consistent average of 22,000 new cases. This clearly indicates a landslide decrease in the number of cases as opposed to the mid-September average of nearly 92,000 new cases.
While India’s active cases continue to decrease, the case load in countries like USA and Russia continues to grow. However, the recent COVID-19 graph has surely placed India at a good position in the global fights against the virus.
Also Read – Maharashtra announces SOPs for New Year celebrations
India in the fight against COVID-19 began its journey in late March 2020. The government imposed a stringent lockdown to curb the spread of the virus. From late march all the way up to mid-September, the COVID-19 caseload of India continued to increase substantially.
As opposed to less than 1% of the total cases reported in March, a terrifying 31% of the total cases in the world were reported in September. To give a sense of perspective, every third person testing positive for COVID-19 belonged to India. These estimates are based on the data provided by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre.
India reported the highest number of cases in the world within the short span of two months. In relation to the COVID-19 related deaths, India had the highest number of deaths in the world till September.
Must Read – Genome Sequencing of COVID-19 positive international patients in India
The current figures up to December 27 look better. India stands behind USA and Brazil in terms new reported COVID-19 cases while occupying the eighth position in terms new COVID-related deaths. The country’s share of new coronavirus cases reduced from 31% in September to merely 4.5% in December. Moreover, the country’s share of new COVID-related deaths decreased from 20.5% in September to 3.5% till December 27. This clearly indicates that India currently contributes very little to the global caseload.
As of now, India has not experienced a second wave of cases. Fingers-crossed, this optimistic situation continues in the future especially, amid a new variant of COVID-19 recently detected in six UK returnees.