At 6.90 L cases, India surpasses Russia as third-worst hit country

NEW DELHI: India surpassed Russia as the third worst-hit country by COVID-19 after its case tally crossed 6.90 lakh on Sunday, according to statistics aggregator Worldometer, with several states recording their highest single-day spike.
The death toll rose by a record 613, to reach 19,268 in the country, the Union Health Ministry said, and states like Assam and Karnataka imposed selective lockdown to check the rising infection.
Russia has 6,81,251 infections while Brazil has 15,78,376 and the US has 29,54,999 cases, according to Worldometer which compiles the COVID-19 data from around the globe.
A tally of figures reported by States and UTs on Sunday night showed India's COVID-19 case load at 6,90,349 while the death toll climbed to 19,683.
However, the Johns Hopkins University in the United States, which has also been compiling COVID-19 data from all over the world, put Russia's infection tally at 6,80,283 and India's 6,73,165, which is the official figure updated at 8 am by the Union Health Ministry.
The ministry data showed a record single-day surge of 24,850 coronavirus. The country has reported over 20,000 COVID-19 cases for the third day in a row.
The states of Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh. Karnataka and West Bengal recorded their highest single-day jump in cases on Sunday.
The worst affected Maharashtra crossed the grim milestone of two lakh COVID-19 cases, Tamil Nadu's tally reached 1.11 lakh and Delhi too was nearing the one lakh mark.
Amid the surge, the country is working to fast-track development of a vaccine, though experts have advised caution against racing through the process.
The nod to conduct human trials for Indian COVID-19 vaccine candidates COVAXIN and ZyCov-D marks the beginning of the end of the coronavirus pandemic, according to T V Venkateswaran, who is a scientist with Vigyan Prasar.
Now the nod given by the Drug Controller General of India, CDSCO (the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation) for the conduct of the human trial for the vaccines, marks the beginning of the end, an article by him published on the websites of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) stated.
In the past years, India has emerged as a significant vaccine manufacturing hub and Indian manufacturers account for 60 per cent of vaccine supplies made to UNICEF.
"The vaccine for the novel coronavirus may be developed anywhere in the world, but without Indian manufacturers involved the production of required quantities is not going to be feasible," the article said.
In the national capital, the 10,000-bed Sardar Patel COVID care centre, touted as "one of the largest" facilities in the world, was inaugurated.
Also, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh along with Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited a newly-created temporary hospital with 1,000 beds, including 250 in the ICU, for COVID-19 patients.
The facility has been constructed in just 12 days near the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport on a piece of land belonging to the Ministry of Defence.
The home minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is fully committed to helping the people of Delhi in these challenging times and this COVID hospital, yet again, highlights that resolve.