New Delhi
India on Saturday became the third country to cross the grim milestone of 4,000,000 COVID-19 cases, as it continues to struggle against the infection with no end in sight.
India added 86,432 cases of the new virus on Saturday, setting a global daily record, according to data from the federal health ministry.
Infections rose across the country, including in the capital New Delhi and the large states of Maharashtra and Karnataka.
The jump to more than 4 million cases comes only 13 days after India reached 3 million cases, accelerating sharply from the more than 100 days it took to increase by the previous 1 million.
India has logged the world’s largest daily coronavirus caseload for almost a month, as its government pushes the opening up of businesses to revive a sharply contracting economy.
The number of deaths in India from the COVID-19 rose by more than 1,000 to 69,561 on Saturday. The University of Washington’s health institute forecast on Saturday that death toll in the US may reach 410,000 by January 2021 and as many as 3,000 people can die from the infection each day.
Deaths could be reduced by 30% if more Americans wore face masks as epidemiologists have advised, but mask-wearing is declining, the university’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said.
The US death rate projected by the IHME model, which has been cited by the White House Coronavirus Task Force, would more than triple the current death rate of some 850 per day.
“We expect the daily death rate in the United States, because of seasonality and declining vigilance of the public, to reach nearly 3,000 a day in December,” the institute, which bills itself as an independent research center, said in an update of its periodic forecasts.
“Cumulative deaths expected by January 1 are 410,000; this is 225,000 deaths from now until the end of the year,” the institute said.
It previously projected 317,697 deaths by Dec 1. The model’s outlook for the world was even more dire, with deaths projected to triple to 2.8 million by Jan 1, 2021.
The United States, which has the world’s third largest population, leads the planet with more than 186,000 COVID-19 deaths and 6.1 million coronavirus infections.
The institute made waves earlier this year when its aggressive forecasts contrasted with President Donald Trump’s repeated statements that the coronavirus would disappear. But deaths have surpassed some of the institute’s dire predictions, which have been frequently updated to reflect new data, revised assumptions and more sophisticated information sources.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues forecasts only four weeks in advance, and its latest estimate is for 200,000 to 211,000 dead by Sept 26.
But the institute said with so many Americans still refusing to wear masks, there remains “an extraordinary opportunity” to save lives.
“Increasing mask use to the levels seen in Singapore would decrease the cumulative death toll to 288,000, or 122,000 lives saved compared to the reference scenario,” it said. “Mask use continues to decline from a peak in early August. Declines are notable throughout the Midwest, including in some states such as Illinois and Iowa with increasing case numbers,” the report said.—AFP
