Nathan Jeffay is The Times of Israel s health and science correspondent
FILE - In this April 24, 2021, file photo, a COVID-19 patient inside a car, receives oxygen provided by a Gurdwara, a Sikh house of worship, in New Delhi, India. India’s death toll from COVID-19 has surpassed 200,000 people as a surge has wept the country in recent weeks, a rise rooted in various so-called super-spreader events that were allowed to happen in the months following the autumn when the country had seemingly brought the pandemic under control. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)
An Israeli nonprofit announced Wednesday that it was dispatching a large shipment of medical aid to India, where hospitals are struggling to cope with a huge spike in coronavirus cases.
The world is watching in horror as India is stricken by a coronavirus crisis, but the nation does not actually have the most daily new cases in comparison to its massive population, according to official figures.
The Mediterranean island of Cyprus currently has the largest number of cases per population, with 929 people per one million testing positive daily in the last week.
By comparison, India is the world s second largest nation with almost 1.4 billion people and, according to Our World in Data, in the last week there have been about 209 new daily cases per one million people.
READ MORE:
The South American nation of Uruguay (854 new daily cases per million) and the Middle Eastern country of Bahrain (620) are also at the top of the table in terms of case rates.
In multiple countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has reached one of its bleakest points yet.
The crisis exposing the divide between rich and poor nations threatens to prolong the pandemic just as Western countries such as the United States have stepped up vaccines and loosened COVID-19 restrictions.
India also thought it was turning the corner at the start of the year after undergoing a painful lockdown that was politically unpopular and left millions of mostly migrant workers jobless. With only a few thousand reported daily cases in the country of 1.4 billion, a sense of triumphalism had taken root.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party claimed COVID-19 had been “defeated” under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The health minister said India had reached the “endgame” of the disease. People started to emerge from isolation, relishing the opportunity to return to public gatherings.
A man in protective suit digs earth to bury the body of a person who died of COVID-19 in Gauhati, India, April 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)
NEW DELHI, India (AP) India crossed a grim milestone Wednesday of 200,000 people lost to the coronavirus as a devastating surge of new infections tears through dense cities and rural areas alike and overwhelms health care systems on the brink of collapse.
The health ministry reported a single-day record 3,293 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing India’s total fatalities to 201,187, as the world’s second-most populous country endures its darkest chapter of the pandemic yet.
India tops 200,000 dead as virus surge breaks health system msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.