Covid-19: India surpasses one million reported cases

Third nation in the world in number of contaminations listed, behind the United States and Brazil, India counted on July 17 some 25,602 deaths for 1,003,832 confirmed cases, according to official figures published in the morning by the Ministry of Health.

The second most populous nation on the planet has recorded nearly 35,000 additional cases and 700 deaths attributed to the virus in the past 24 hours. Dizzying figures, but, in proportion to the 1.3 billion inhabitants, the number of deaths from the Covid-19 in India remains relatively low: there are 18 deaths per million inhabitants, compared to 417 in the United States .

Reconfinements and health restrictions 

The changes and health restrictions to fight Covid-19 disease are increasing in recent weeks at the initiative of regional governments. The 125 million inhabitants of the poor state of Bihar were reconfigured at midnight Thursday, a day after the 13 million inhabitants of Bangalore.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government imposed brutal containment in late March, which it lifted in early June, despite the skyrocketing number of cases, in an attempt to revive an economy on its knees. Many restrictions remain in place, however.

"Human tragedy" underway in South Asia

Southeast Asia on the way to becoming the next epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, worried this week the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) who asked in a tweet that more attention is paid to this region.

We need more focus on the new # COVID19 hotspot in South Asia. https://t.co/4AGs5r5jqU pic.twitter.com/e7X0Ejaa96

"While the world's attention is focused on the ongoing crisis in the United States and South America, a similar human tragedy is rapidly emerging in South Asia," said an IFRC regional official in a statement.

With AFP

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