The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday announced that the number of coronavirus cases in India had crossed the figure of 5 lakh. The government announced that in the 24-hour period that ended at 8am on Saturday, India had recorded 18,552 coronavirus cases and 384 fatalities. This is the single-highest daily spike in COVID-19 cases. This takes the total number of COVID-19 cases in India to 5,08,953 and fatalities from the pandemic to 15,685.
The accelerated pace of spread of COVID-19 since May can be gauged from the fact that India had recorded 1 lakh cases by May 19. This means it took little over a month for COVID-19 cases to multiply fivefold in India. The rise from 4 lakh COVID-19 cases to the 5 lakh mark took just six days. The fatality rate has also been on the upward trajectory in the past month. India crossed the mark of 1,000 COVID-19 deaths on April 29. It went past the figure of 10,000 COVID-19 deaths on June 17. However, compared with other badly hit nations, particularly those in Europe, the fatality rate in India has remained low.
Moreover, the recovery rate for COVID-19 patients has improved. As of Saturday, while there were 1,97,387 active COVID-19 cases, 2,95,881 cases had been cured.
