NEW DELHI: The rate at which COVID-19 cases has been doubling in India is slower as compared to several other countries such as the USA, Italy and Spain, according to officials.
Similarly, the total number of cases and deaths per million is lower in India than these countries which have been hit hard by the pandemic.
Officials, quoting data sourced from the Health Ministry and Worldometers.info, said India in comparison to several other countries tested more people when the cases crossed the 5,000 and 10,000 marks.
Officials said the cases doubled from 750 to 1,500 in four days in India and from 1,500 to 3000 in four days again while it took five days for the number of cases to double from 3,000-6,000 and six days to reach the 12000 figure. In comparison, in the US, it took two days for cases to double from 750, three days to go up from 1,500 to 3,000, two days from 3,000 to 6,000 and another two days to go up from 6,000 to 12,000 cases. In Italy, for the same range of cases, it took two, three, four days and three days respectively.
The number of days it took in Spain for cases to double was one day (750-1,500), two (1,500-3,000), two (3,000-6,000) and from four days (6,000-12,000). In UK, cases went up from 750 to 1,500 in three days, from 1,500-3,000 in three days, 3,000-6,000 in four days and from 6,000-12,000 in four days.
Officials said India has nine COVID-19 patients per one million population while it stood at 267 per million globally.
As compared to India, Spain has 3,864 cases per million, Italy 2,732, France 2,265, the US 1,946, Germany 1,608 and Japan 68 cases. India has 0.3 deaths per million population, as compared to 86 in the US, 402 in Spain, 358 in Italy and 190 in the UK, 263 in France, 45 in Germany and one in Japan. The deaths per million population worldwide stands at 17.3.
As far as testing is concerned, India had conducted 1.14 lakh tests when it crossed 5000 cases and 2.17 lakh tests on the date the country recorded 10,000 cases.
Italy, US and UK had conducted 0.49 lakh, 1.04 lakh and 0.78 lakh tests on the date the cases crossed the 5000 mark respectively and 0.73 lakh, 1.39 lakh and 1.13 lakh tests respectively on the date the cases crossed the 10,000 mark. Canada, however, had conducted 2.41 lakh tests on the date it crossed 5000 cases and 2.95 lakh tests when it hit 10,000. However, in the US and Germany, the number jumped from 6,000 to 12,000 cases in just two days, the data showed. While countries like the UK, Spain and France saw the rise of cases from 6,000 to 12,000 in four days each, in Italy it happened in three days. In Canada the number doubled to 12,000 in five days.
The data also shows that India has only nine COVID-19 patients per 10 lakh population, which is far lesser than other countries.
While the US has 1946 patients per 10 lakh population, Spain has 3864 cases, Italy has 2732, France 2265, the UK 1451 and Germany 1608 coronavirus patients per 10 lakh population.
The pandemic which has claimed over 1.30 lakh lives globally, has led to the death of over 400 patients in India which is approximately 0.3 persons per 10 lakh population, the data said. (PTI)
