India recorded a new record of 4,529 deaths from Covid-19 in 24 hours on Wednesday, May 19, still under the effect of a violent second epidemic wave, while the number of new contaminations tended to decrease.
The number of daily deaths from the disease has increased in recent days, as the virus spread in the Indian countryside with non-existent or basic health infrastructure.
Read also: Covid-19: India becomes the new epicenter of the pandemic
Since the start, the pandemic has caused 283,248 deaths in the vast country of 1.3 billion people, behind the United States (more than 600,000 dead) and Brazil (around 440,000 dead).
Some 267,334 new contaminations have been identified in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number since the start of the Covid crisis to 25.5 million, placing India in the second rank of the most contaminated countries, behind the United States.
At the current rate, India could move to number one as early as June.
A second wave of particularly virulent Covid-19 has ravaged India for six weeks, causing shortages of oxygen and essential drugs in hospitals saturated with patients.
Since the beginning of April, the number of contaminations has doubled and more than 100,000 people have been killed.
Indian authorities report that the number of daily contaminations, which has remained below 300,000 for three consecutive days, allows a hint of optimism. "
The curve of the pandemic is stabilizing,
" according to Vinod Kumar Paul, head of the government working group dedicated to Covid-19.
