India overtakes Italy to become sixth nation with highest number of COVID-19 cases worldwide

New Delhi: India has now overtaken Italy to become the sixth worst affected country after the number of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in India rose to 2.35 lakh on Friday, data from America’s Johns Hopkins University showed.

India had crossed China, where the virus emerged late last year, in terms of cases for the ninth spot just a week ago. Figures from the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University showed around midnight that India had 235,769 Covid-19 cases and Italy 236,184. With 6,641 deaths, India has now ranked the 12th worst-hit country. The Union health ministry dashboard shows the number of Covid-19 cases in India has risen to 226,770 and the death toll is at 6,348.

According to Johns Hopkins data, the US has the greatest number of infected people in the world with more than 1.8 million Covid-19 cases. The US has 18,80,703 infections and 1,08,496 deaths. Of these, 485,002 people have been cured of the infection. In Brazil also, the coronavirus outbreak has been increasing rapidly and it is second only to the US in the list of countries which are most affected by the infection the number of infected in Brazil has crossed the five-lakh mark. So far, 614,941 people have been infected and 34,021 people have died. At the same time, 2,54,963 people have returned home after treatment.

Russia ranks third on the list of coronavirus affected countries. After 8,726 new cases of Covid-19, the number of infected people has reached 449,834 in Russia. Its death toll stands at 5,528 and 212,237 people have got rid of the disease. The epidemic in Italy, the most-affected country in Europe, has killed 33,774 people and infected 2,34,531 people. In Spain, 240,978 people have been infected and 27,134 people have died. So far, 87,174 people have contracted the coronavirus disease and 4,638 have died in China. According to a report, 80% of the deaths in China were in people over 60 years of age.

The situation in European countries of France and Germany is also grim. So far, 189,569 people have been infected in France and 29,068 have succumbed to Covid-19. In Germany, 184,924 people have been infected and 8,645 have died. The situation in the UK is also getting worse where 284,730 people have been affected by this epidemic and 40,344 people have died so far.