241 cases per minute: What these grim numbers say about India's Covid tsunami

NEW DELHI: India's catastrophic Covid crisis is deepening by the day with the country consistently reporting a sharp rise in daily infections and fatalities.
The deluge of cases in the second wave has also strained India's healthcare infrastructure, forcing hospitals in several states to plead for oxygen due to massive demand.

Here are some statistics that capture the unprecedented spread of the virus during the second wave:
241 infections every minute
India on Saturday reported a massive surge of 3.46 lakh new infections and became the first country in the world to add over 3 lakh cases to its tally for three consecutive days.

The death count also rose by a record 2,624 — a sharp 16% rise from the previous day's toll of 2,263.
It means that on an average, each minute India reported as many as 241 infections and added almost two deaths to its toll in the last 24 hours. This goes to show the relentless pace at which the virus has impacted the country.
Nearly a million cases in 3 days
In the last three days, India has cumulatively reported close to a million cases.
This is a huge contrast from the situation just a few months ago, when it took India almost 65 days to add a million cases to its tally.
Even during its first peak around September last year, the country took at least 11 days to register a million cases.

India has now been reporting a six-figure addition to its daily caseload for 18 consecutive days.
Since reporting its first surge of over 1 lakh cases, India has added over 39 lakh cases to its total caseload.

Active cases swell
India's active caseload fell to just 1.3 lakh in mid-February after a consistent decline in cases and healthy pace of recoveries.
This figure how now gone past the 2.5 million mark in just over 2 months with India witnessing a nearly 15-fold rise in active cases.

The sharp spike in active cases has also sent the demand for ICU beds and oxygen soaring due to a rush of hospitalisations.
Currently, Maharashtra accounts for nearly 27% of all active cases in India. It is followed by states like UP, Karnataka and Kerala.

The growing cases has also pushed several states to the brink, with Delhi alone witnessing 539 funerals on Friday alone.
Where India stands globally
India has turned into Covid hotspot of the world with the Delhi high court equating the flood of infections in the second wave to a "tsunami".
However, due to the large size of its population, a majority of the people are still vulnerable to the virus.
Nearly 10% of the population in the US — the worst-hit country — has been infected by the virus till now. In Brazil, which is the third most affected country, almost 6.7% of the people have contracted coronavirus so far.
In comparison, only 1.21% of Indians have tested positive for the virus since the outbreak. This is based on figures from the latest World Bank population estimate.
However, this still may not capture the true extent of the virus' spread in the country.
As far as testing is concerned, India has among the lowest numbers compared to the 10 worst-hit nations in the world.

While the US, UK and France have conducted more tests than the size of their population, India on average has tested just 2 in 10 people.
Again, while this is due to the sheer size of its population of over 1.3 billion, it also indicates that we may still not be aware of the real situation.
A major reason is low testing and lack of awareness in remote villages and far-flung areas.
Another indicator that may give a glimpse into the spread of the virus is the high positivity rate in India.
Last week, India's positivity rate grew drastically to over 16% on April 18 from 8.6% on April 6.

According to John Hopkins University, a high percent positive means that more testing should probably be done.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has set 5% positivity rate as the threshold and any beyond that is considered too high.
The positivity rate in several districts of India is way higher than the WHO-recommended limit, touching even 30% in places like Delhi. This indicates that the virus has spread rapidly in the community.
It also indicates that the coronavirus situation in India could worsen in the coming days.