Coronavirus India Updates

India reported more than 3 lakh deaths due to Covid-19, just 12 days after going past the 2.5-lakh mark. The country has recorded 1 lakh deaths from the virus in the past 26 days, becoming the only country in the world where the toll, in terms of milestones of 50,000, has risen by 1,00,000 in under 30 days. At the height of its third wave in December-January, the death toll in the US had increased from 3.5 lakh to 4.5 lakh in 31 days. In May alone, more than 92,000 deaths have been recorded in 23 days so far. Thats almost twice the toll in April, when 48,768 deaths were reported, which was a record for any month till then, the Times of India reported. Several experts have said many deaths during the second wave had not been counted in the official statistics, pointing to major discrepancies in the number of Covid protocol cremations across cities and the Covid fatalities reported there in the past couple of months.

While the number of fresh cases has declined steadily after infections in the country peaked around May 8, the daily toll has not decreased by much. The seven-day rolling average of daily cases was down 32% since the peak on May 8, when the average stood at over 3.91 lakh. On May 22, the index was at 2.64 lakh.

Meanwhile, America‘s top infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci says he is “not convinced” COVID-19 developed naturally, and called for an open investigation into the virus’ origins. “There‘s a lot of cloudiness around the origins of Covid-19 still, so I wanted to ask, are you still confident that it developed naturally？” Fauci was asked at an event. “No actually,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said. “I am not convinced about that, I think we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we continue to find out to the best of our ability what happened.” Certainly, the people who investigated it say it likely was the emergence from an animal reservoir that then infected individuals, but it could have been something else, and we need to find that out. So, you know, that’s the reason why I said Im perfectly in favor of any investigation that looks into the origin of the virus, he continued.

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