India has reported over 300,000 deaths from covid-19, the third worst death toll in the world behind the United States and Brazil, according to the latest figures from India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday. Officially, the death toll in India stands at 303,720, though public health experts fear the real number is likely much higher.
India has seen over 26.7 million coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, with over 222,000 reported on Monday alone. That daily case number is thankfully much lower than it was two weeks ago when cases totaled over 400,000 each day, but it’s still stubbornly high.
Over a third of India’s officially documented covid-19 deaths have come from the last 26 days alone, as the BBC points out. Deaths lag positive cases being detected in the community so it makes sense that we’d be seeing an uptick in the number of deaths from people who first tested positive several weeks ago.
Disturbingly, some people aren’t taking public health measures seriously in India at the moment. A viral video has revealed one couple in Madurai chartered a private plane for themselves and roughly 160 guests so they could have a wedding while in flight and not have to adhere to any coronavirus restrictions on the ground.
Rakesh-Dakshina from Madurai, who rented a plane for two hours and got married in the wedding sky. Family members who flew from Madurai to Bangalore after getting married by SpiceJet flight from Bangalore to Madurai. #COVID19India #lockdown @TV9Telugu #weddingrestrictions pic.twitter.com/9nDyn3MM4n
— DONTHU RAMESH (@DonthuRamesh) May 23, 2021
The pandemic is not over in most parts of the world, as we can see from India’s horrendous daily death count. But there will always be people who simply can’t wait to get back to “normal” — and potentially endanger their family members in the process.
India has vaccinated over 196 million people, according to a vaccination tracker maintained by the Hindustan Times, with over 942,000 people getting vaccinated just yesterday. And while those are impressive numbers, they’re still painfully slow for such a large population. India has over 1.3 billion people.
The U.S. has recorded over 33 million cases and 589,893 deaths as of Sunday, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker. Brazil has recorded a worse death toll with fewer cases, both likely undercounts as well, with 16 million cases and 449,068 deaths.