COVID-19: India Overtakes Brazil As Second Worst Affected Nation

India has overtaken Brazil to become the second-worst affected nation with 42,04,613 COVID-19 cases, in the last 24 hours.

Brazil, now in third place, has reported 41,37,521 total cases. The South American country still ranks second in the number of deaths reported globally.

It took Brazil 195 days to reach this total while India took 222 days. US still occupies the top position in both the number of cases and deaths.

Despite 42 lakh cases, with a population of 130 crores, India has reported lesser cases than US and Brazil. US with a population of over 32 crores has over 62 lakh COVID-19 cases. Similarly, Brazil with a population of 21 crores has reported 41 lakh cases.

India reported its first case on January 30 while Brazil reported its first case on February 26. Since then, the infection spread faster in Brazil which was also conducting higher tests. India strengthened its testing capacity and has been testing over a million samples daily for the past week. In the last 24 hours, however, the country tested only 7 lakh samples.

The infogram below shows the trajectory of the spread of COVID-19 in both these nations.

It is noteworthy to know that while Brazil was quicker to record the first million cases, the period at which it reported the next three million is slower than the time taken by India. It took Brazil 116 days to report the first million, 27 days to report the second, 23 days for the third and, 26 days for the fourth million.

On the other hand, India's ascent to the first million took over 169 days but the subsequent three came within 22, 16, and 13 days.

India's daily count of cases is now surpassing the total number of cases reported by China, where the virus originated.

In terms of mortality, India has performed better than Brazil. Even though India has been reporting around 1024 deaths on an average daily for the past week, the number of deaths reported in Brazil are higher. Brazil has reported 1,26,650 deaths so far while India has reported 71,642 deaths.

The heads of both the BRICS nations adopted different approaches to tackle the virus. The Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro downplayed the virus, even after he tested positive on July 7. He has continuously criticised lockdown measures and suggested that the economy of the Latin American nation is more important. The Brazilian economy contracted by 9.7% in the second quarter and decreased by 11.2% when compared to the same period last year taking it back to what it was in 2009, reported Al Jazeera. The spread of the virus is slowing down in the country as its daily new cases keep fluctuating between 16,000- 50,000.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a lockdown when the spread of the virus was at the nascent stage but later steadily unlocked the country which has led to a surge in cases. The Indian economy contracting by 23.9% with the rapid increase in cases has led to the government announcing many unlocking reforms. He, however, has been requesting the citizens to follow lockdown, social distancing, and personal hygiene measures diligently.