India Surpasses 2 Million Infections Despite Months-Long Lockdown

For obvious reasons, India has been focus of concern for global health officials from the start of the pandemic crisis, given its tightly packed population of over 1.3 billion.

The country hit a grim milestone on Friday, surpassing 2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, including over 41,000 deaths, which commentators have somewhat positively noted is a comparatively low mortality rate compared to other global hot spots. Friday saw a record daily jump in confirmed cases.

“The Health Ministry reported 62,538 cases in the past 24 hours, raising the nation’s confirmed total to 2,027,074. It said 886 more people had died, for a total of 41,585,” according to the latest numbers.

Compounding the crisis, community and local health teams seen as vital in testing and treating rural areas have gone on strike over what they say are state and provincial governments leaving them ill-equipped, thus lacking proper protection as the virus spreads, AP reports.

Still, officials are saying it could be much worse given the population density, and are hailing government efforts as effective: “Despite our huge population and rampant illiteracy, if we have only 2 million cases so far, it shows that the government has played a big role in reducing the spread,” one pharmacist and health official told AP.

Currently India remains with the third highest confirmed cases, after the United States and Brazil, though Iranian officials (Iran is much further down the list with over 322,000 cases) have lately said they believe their true numbers are in the tens of millions.

A government ordered months long lockdown has begun to be lifted in most major cities while some provinces have seen restrictions left in place, as India hopes to reinvigorate its lagging, COVID-hit economy.

It’s especially rural districts which are considered worrisome, given fears that ill-equipped country-side clinics and hospitals can be easily overrun.