Covid-19 Factoid: India's case count doubled to 100,000 in just 12 days

The country had taken 96 days to reach the 50,000 mark; in another worrying sign, the death toll in India is doubling at a faster pace than in the 10 most affected nations

lockdown, coronavirus, Health workers — Health workers conduct thermal screening of passengers who have arrived from Delhi by a special train at Howrah station, during the ongoing COVID-19 nationwide lockdown, in Kolkata

3 min read Last Updated : May 20 2020 | 6:45 AM IST

The total number of coronavirus infections globally is inching dangerously close to the 5-million mark. There have been 320,520 deaths worldwide, and 1.9 million people have made recoveries so far.

In India, now there are more than 100,000 cases, and over 3,000 deaths. Roughly 38 per cent of all reported cases have now recovered. The national capital is now the fourth state in the country with more than 10,000 reported cases.

Here are some statistics on the contagion:

1. India has become the 11th country to cross the 100,000 mark in reported cases

Though India has now joined the unfortunate club of countries with more than 100,000 cases, it has taken the longest to reach the grim milestone. It took 108 days to record 100,000 cases, half of which came in just 12 days. For the US, the first 50,000 cases had been recorded in 65 days, and the second in just three days. Turkey, at 42 days, was the fastest to reach 100,000 cases.

2. Time taken for death toll to double in India is much lower than 10 most affected countries

In a worrying trend, time taken by India to double its death toll has been much lower than the average for the 10 countries that have the highest death count. India took just 14 days to double its death count — only Brazil among 10 most affected countries took one day more. The US, which has the highest number of fatalities in the world, doubled its count in 27 days. For countries like Italy and Spain, the previous epicentres of the pandemic, this metric is much higher than the world average of 31 days.

3. The death to recovery ratio in India is improving

In a piece of positive news, the proportion of recoveries in total daily closed cases is increasing. In the current ratio, 92.5 per cent of the closed cases (either recovered or dead) have managed to beat the infection. In other words, only one out every 10 cases on average is succumbing to the virus. At its worst, in early April, three out of every 10 closed cases were ending up as fatalities.