Covid deaths in India could peak by mid-May at 5,600 a day

GBNEWS24 DESK//

India’s daily tally of coronavirus-induced deaths could peak by mid-May at 5,600, an American study has warned.

This would mean that close to 3 lakh people may lose their lives to Covid-19 in the country between April and August alone.

The study, titled ‘COVID-19 projections’ was conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. Published on April 15, the study pinned hope on India’s nationwide vaccination drive to tide over the second wave of the pandemic, reports India Today.

The coronavirus pandemic in India is going to get worse in the coming weeks, warned the study by IHME experts. For the purpose of this study, experts assessed the current rate of infections and deaths in India.

In the study, it has been predicted that India’s daily tally of Covid-induced deaths will peak at 5,600 on May 10 of this year. With an additional 3,29,000 deaths projected between April 12 and August 1, the cumulative death toll could rise up to 6,65,000 by the end of July.

Universal mask coverage

Another projection in the study says universal mask coverage (95 per cent) by the end of the third week of April could bring down this figure by 70,000.

The study by the University of Washington says that there was a declining trend in the number of daily Covid-19 cases and deaths in India from September 2020 to mid-February 2021.

However, the country then witnessed a reversal of this trend with a dramatic rise in new confirmed cases of coronavirus in April.

Daily Covid-19 cases have doubled as compared to the previous peak in September of last year.

Between the first and second week of April, the daily tally of new confirmed cases increased by 71 per cent and daily deaths by 55 per cent due to non-adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour by participation in massive gatherings and refusal to wear face masks.
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