Lesser known facts about India's fight against coronavirus pandemic

India overtook Brazil in confirmed coronavirus cases on Monday, making it second only to the United States after a record jump of more than 90,000 fresh infections for two consecutive days.

No other country has recorded so many cases in a single day. The previous record was held by US which had recorded 80,000 in 24 hours.

Also read: India Covid-19 tally past 42L mark as country becomes second-worst affected

Over 4.2 million have contracted the novel coronavirus in India, surpassing Brazil's total and making the country's tally the second-highest behind the United States' 6.25 million.

According to India's Ministry of Health, the country has 8,82,542 active cases, 32,50,429 cured or discharged/migrated.

It appears the densely populated country and its poor healthcare system is unable to bear the burden.

However, this is merely the partial truth. Let's take a look at the complete picture:

Normalcy

Life is returning to its normal state in the country. The metro in the capital New Delhi began reopening on Monday after a five-month shutdown and 12 other cities restarted subway services. 

Also read: Delhi Metro resumes services: Here is a list of SOPs that you should know

Too early?

India's COVID-19 death rate is one of the lowest in the world. So far, India has reported over 71,600 deaths. The fatality rate stands at 1.72 percent. Whereas, the global average stands at 3.3 percent.

India is reporting 48 deaths per million people while the global average stands at 110 deaths per million people.

Brazil and the UK Are reporting deaths 12 to 13 times higher than India per million people. The fatality rate stands at 1.72 percent the crisis is real and deadly.

The government says the high recovery rates show its strategy of testing, tracing and treatment is working. Testing has increased from 100,000 tests per day in May to 1.2 million tests per day at present. 

India has tested 49 million people in total and is only behind China and US who have conducted 160 million and 87 million tests respectively.

Its recovery rate stands at 77 percent in comparison to the US with a recovery rate of 57 per cent.

In April the country's hospitals had just 95,000 dedicated beds. But by the end of August, the number went up to  1.2 million beds.

Five states account for the country's 60 per cent cases which means it has been able to curb widespread.