The coronavirus pandemic has been devastating, to say the least. The virus has claimed nearly 250k lives and affected more than 3.5 million people worldwide. The virus was born in China but spread to the whole world like a wildfire and now almost every country in the world is under its grip. The United States is the most affected country with over 1.16 million people testing positive for the virus and the death toll 67k.
India is ranked number 16 in the world among the countries with the most confirmed cases of COVID-19. India registered its first case way back on the 2nd of February and now total confirmed cases stand over 42k. The number of active cases stands at 29k with 11k recoveries and nearly 1.5k deaths. The above graph shows the number of cases state-wise. Maharashtra is the most affected Indian state with nearly 13k confirmed cases accounting for almost 35% of the total cases in India.
Given the fact that India is the second-largest populated country after China, you could say that being on number 16 on the list isn't that bad. However, ranking is not a concern, it's the speed at which the cases are growing that bothers.
You can see from the graph that the cases are increasing each day and we are touching record highs every day. It started with a few daily cases but now from the past two days, the persons testing positive are over 3k. This should be a huge cause of worry for India. The lockdown is in effect and it has almost been two months since then but the cases are on the rise.
It looks like the virus is a bit biased towards the male population. Around 67% of the affected people are males. It is because of the lag in culture. Many people in India still think that women should not work and as a result, fewer women go out and the result is in front of your eyes.
According to WHO, people of older ages are more likely to get infected by this disease but the graph of India is telling a different story. The sample size of the graph might be small but even if you take 41k as sample size, the graph won't deviate much. It looks like the younger population is more prone to this disease. Again, for me this is simple, the persons in the age group of 20-40 are more likely to go out than others which justifies the results.
India is at the bottom among those countries that have done very few tests on their population. India has done only 758 tests per million population which is very low compared to other countries especially UAE who have a ratio of 121k per million. But the fact is that India is the second-largest country in terms of population and this works against India when it comes to testing. Still, India is lacking behind as they have done only 10 million tests so far. A bit of catching up to do.
The fourth phase of lockdown started in India from today and will last for another 14 days. The Indian economy has taken a huge hit as it was already slowing down. There is no certainty if the lockdown will be lifted after two weeks and right now it seems highly unlikely. However, there is a slight chance that lockdown might be lifted in states and union territories with zero or very few cases but right now, chances of that are very thin.
All the pictures and stats are sourced from Covid19india.org
