Nearly 300,000 out of more than 700,000. India now represents 35% of new cases of Covid recorded in the world each day (on average over the past week), according to data from the Our World in Data site at 22 April.
Such a rate had never been reached since the start of the epidemic more than a year ago, even though the 30% was exceeded last September.
But the numbers were then three times lower (around 90,000 new daily cases out of 270,000 worldwide).
India of course is also the second most populous country in the world, just behind China.
But its inhabitants represent "only" 18% of the 7.7 billion inhabitants of the planet, which accentuates the importance of this 35% of new positive cases recorded in the world.
The Southeast Asian country is facing an outbreak of the epidemic and the spread of a new, closely watched variant, B.1.617.
However, "no link has been established at this stage between the emergence of this variant and the recent deterioration of the epidemiological situation in India", indicate Public Health France and the National Reference Center for Respiratory Infections Viruses.
in a new risk analysis released Friday night.
Very underestimated deaths?
The so-called “British” variant, very present in some Indian states and between 43 and 90% more transmissible than the predominant strain until the end of 2020, as well as recent “large gatherings” are also mentioned as an explanation.
"The religious event of the Kumbh Mela, which brought together hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in the state of Uttarakhand, probably facilitated the spread of the virus," say French experts.
Read also Indian variant of Covid-19: what you need to know about its possible presence in France
It should also be remembered that these detected cases are not exhaustive.
Only those infected and who are being tested are obviously listed.
However, in India, the number of tests carried out each day is 5 times less than that in France and 3 times less than that in the United States when we relate the values to the population, for example, still according to the figures compiled by Our World In Data.
India's death toll would be even more underestimated, based on cremation data analyzed by a Financial Times reporter.
Essentially, none of those numbers are correct;
all are vast undercounts.
I collated local news reports (HT @muradbanaji) across seven districts, finding that overall, numbers of Covid victims who have been cremated are 10x larger than official Covid death counts in same areas.
pic.twitter.com/y6sDZ1qgRX
- John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) April 21, 2021
Hence, perhaps, the fact that "only" 14% of deaths recorded each day in the world are currently in this country.