India recorded more than 400,000 Covid-19 cases and nearly 12,000 deaths from the virus in June alone, which is by far the worst month of the outbreak in the country. It wasn’t just the number of cases that was 2.7 times higher than those reported during May, but even the number of deaths was 2.8 times higher.
In May, India had reported over 150,000 cases and 4,267 deaths. The country’s 400,000 Covid-19 cases in June was the third highest in the world after the US and Brazil, and the number of deaths was the fourth highest after the US, Brazil and Mexico during the month.
While fresh cases on the last day of June dipped slightly to 18,333, deaths crossed the 500 mark to 510, as per the data collated from state governments. India had recorded 585,474 cases of Covid-19 cumulatively while the death toll crossed the 17,000 mark to 17,392 on the day.
The daily fatality count with 2,003 deaths was recorded the highest on June 16, with most of those numbers comprising earlier deaths in Maharashtra and Delhi were confirmed during data reconciliation processes.
A lot of people believe that the main reason behind this increase is unlocking and non-compliance of basic norms like wearing masks in public.
Hence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday warned people of increasing negligence in social and personal behaviour with unlocking proceedings and emphasised on the need to take precautions as the unlock phase unfolds. He also called for strict compliance of norms to control the spread of Covid-19.
Tuesday also marked six months since China reported the world’s first Covid-19 case. At a press conference, the World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:
This is not even close to being over. Although many countries have made some progress globally, the pandemic is actually speeding up.
He also confirmed that WHO would send a team to China next week to investigate the origins of the virus. Experts also believe that India will get its peak in the Covid-19 case in the month of July.
