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In this file photo, a Covid-19 patient sits inside a car and breathes with the help of oxygen provided by a Gurdwara in New Delhi. AP
WASHINGTON: An unprecedented upsurge in Covid-19 infections in South Asia could push global infections to 15 million a day by mid-May, says an American health institute which correctly projected Covid deaths and infections in the United States last year.
“Our latest projections show that the number of infections driven by the surge in India and perhaps also driven by the surges in Bangladesh and Pakistan will be reaching 15 million a day globally,” the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations (IHME) said in its latest report on the pandemic and its impact.
India COVID-19 Cases Could Be More Than 500 Million, 30 Times Higher Than Recorded
KEY POINTS
Health experts fear the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in India could be 30 times higher
A model estimates that COVID-19 deaths could hit more than 950,000 by July
The country could also reach a daily death toll of 13,000
Health experts fear the real number of COVID-19 cases in India could be 30 times higher than the 17.6 million cases recorded since the pandemic began last year. In other words, the number of cases would be over half a billion.
India is currently home to the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak, but health experts and scientists in the country suspect that the numbers are significantly underreported.
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While many in the United States are starting to see a light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel, India has been plunged into a new virus crisis, with diamond areas like Mumbai and Surat among those getting hit.
According to an April 27 report in
MIT Technology Review, India is battling “one of the most acute COVID-19 crises any country has experienced yet.
“The country set a global record for new cases for the fifth day in a row yesterday, reporting 352,991 [cases] and 2,812 deaths. The true figure is almost certainly far higher. Modeling by researchers from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation suggests the true figure for new daily cases in India is likely to now number in the millions.”
India, home to the world s worst ongoing coronavirus outbreak, has reported more than 17.6 million cases since the pandemic began last year.
But the real number, experts fear, could be up to 30 times higher â meaning more than half a billion cases.
Health workers and scientists in India have long warned that COVID-19 infections and related deaths are significantly underreported for several reasons, including poor infrastructure, human error, and low testing levels.
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India, home to the world s worst ongoing coronavirus outbreak, has reported more than 17.6 million cases since the pandemic began last year.(Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
Some things have changed since then â testing has greatly increased in the wake of the first wave, for instance.