New Delhi: The number of novel coronavirus cases has increased to 137 in India even as the government has issued directives, sealed the country's borders urging people to take precautions in the wake of the spread of the deadly virus. Doctors and medical staff have also been working hard to bring down the number of COVID-19 cases. People worldwide are praising India for fighting the Coronavirus. In a country of 135 crore people, India records 137 cases of the Coronavirus which is 0.0 0 0 0 1 per cent of the total population of the country.
While India has taken several initiatives and implemented measures to the epidemic, its neighbouring country Pakistan is battling choppy waters amid coronavirus outbreak. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday sought a debt waiver for countries witnessing a rise in coronavirus cases.
Khan took to Twitter to express his concern over poverty and hunger in the wake of the outbreak of the deadly virus. The Pakistan PMO tweeted, "Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI expresses his concern over poverty and hunger as a consequence of the Corona Pandemic. Moreover, he urges the world community to think of some sort of debt-off for vulnerable countries."
On Tuesday, Pakistan confirmed that COVID-19 cases had more than doubled for a second straight day, largely due to errors made in the testing and quarantine of travellers who recently returned from Iran via a land border crossing. So far, the total coronavirus cases in Pakistan stand at 237 sparking concerns the mistakes could prove costly, as it attempts to control the rapid spread of the disease, said a Reuters report.
Thousands of Pakistanis, mostly pilgrims, have reportedly been put into quarantine in recent weeks at the Taftan border crossing in the western province of Balochistan after returning from Iran, one of the countries worst affected worldwide by the virus.
Pakistan has a population of about 20 crores, and so far, there are 237 people suffering from Coronavirus. Accordingly, out of about 8.5 lakh people present there, one person is infected with this virus.
While 137 people out of 135 crore population of India are infected with this virus i.e. only about one in 98 lakh people are suffering from this virus. And in terms of population, more than 12 times the infection has spread in Pakistan than in India.
Pakistan has failed to receive major financial support from the US in the recent past, besides being denied aid from other nations. This is the reason Imran Khan has now sought loans on the pretext of Coronavirus.
As of December 2019, Pakistan had a foreign debt of about Rs 8,20,000 crore, and this debt is equal to 94 per cent of the GDP there. That is, if Pakistan's GDP is equal to 100 rupees, then it has a foreign debt of 94 rupees.
Pakistan will have to repay the foreign debt of about Rs 89,0000 crores in 2020. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan's debt can reach 9 lakh 60 thousand crore rupees by 2023, thereby, making it a failed state.
On the national front, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday asserted that it has 72 functional ICMR laboratories in the government sector for testing, adding that 49 more will be active by the end of this week. Currently, testing of samples in government labs is free but the government has to spend about Rs 5,000 on testing a sample. According to an estimate, it can cost from Rs 9,000-12,000 rupees to get Coronavirus examined in private labs.
About COVID-19, ICMR Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava stated that India is at stage 2 and not at stage 3 while addressing a press brief in the national capital.
Any epidemic spreads in four stages. In the first phase, this type of virus spreads through a person coming from another country. Just like in the case of India, the first patient of Coronavirus came from Italy. In the second stage, the virus spreads from one person to another. This particularly affects those who live with or with the infected person.
In the third phase, the epidemic spreads from one community to another and hundreds, thousands of people living in that community get infected. In the fourth and last phase, the epidemic starts spreading rapidly to other areas of the country as well and there is no possibility of stopping it. Countries like Italy and Spain are currently going through the fourth phase.
India still has some time to defeat the Coronavirus but in the case of epidemics, time passes by very quickly and even a moment's delay can spin the situation out of control.
The total number of deaths recorded worldwide till Tuesday night was 7,866.
