In the month of November, India has been suffering from a nightmare as the hospitals at the national capital have been filled with the COVID-19 patients. Intensive care is required by thousands of people. Minimum 10 people have been dying in Delhi regularly.
However, situation is under control at the moment. Number of the COVID-19 patients at the hospitals can be counted by hands now. From a total of 200 ventilators, couple of them is being utilized at the moment. Similar reports have been seen from other places in the country also. For the government and medical professionals, it is a huge relief without any doubt.
During the month of January, there have been almost 100,000 cases every day. Now, number of cases has been reduced to almost 8,635 a day. Similar numbers have been seen in New York State for a day in spite of having a population less than 2% in comparison to India.
Transmission limitation may not be a reason behind it. Economy in India has opened completely. However, schools have not been opened in most places till now. However, malls, restaurants and markets are packed with people. Masks are still mandatory in some cities like Mumbai and Delhi. However, masks may not be seen on everyone’s face in other cities.
Reports have suggested that there are about 10.8 million cases of coronavirus in India. However, there may be a huge undercount. Through an antibody survey nationwide, it has been revealed that one Indian in five is affected with the coronavirus till the beginning of January. So, 270 million people of the total population have been exposed to the virus already.
Comparing with the USA where you may find that 14% of the total population has coronavirus antibodies in Mid November.
Through the antibody survey, it is clear that actual infectivity rate may be much higher than projected. Lots of cases have not been undetected in spite of increase in the number of testing.
However, increase in the number of new cases may be seen as the new variant of COVID-19 may affect India in the near future. To eliminate chances of a second wave, importance of vaccination cannot be ignored.