India crosses grim milestone of 5 lakh Covid-19 deaths

New Delhi, Feb 04: India crossed another grim milestone on Friday as the country reported five lakh deaths due to covid-19 after US, Brazil. The death toll climbed to 5,00,055 with 1,072 fresh fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

A total of 5,00,055 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,42,859 from Maharashtra, 56,701 from Kerala, 39,197 from Karnataka, 37,666 from Tamil Nadu, 25,932 from Delhi, 23,277 from Uttar Pradesh and 20,723 from West Bengal.

The country took 217 days to reach 5 lakh deaths from 4 lakh recorded on July 1 last year. This was the longest time taken for a 1-lakh increase in fatalities, hinting at low death rate.

With over 9.1 lakh Covid fatalities United states tops the countries with highest covid deaths, while Brazil has reported nearly 6.3 lakh deaths. Russia is at the fourth position with 3.3 lakh deaths, while Mexico reported 3.01 lakh fatalities due to the pandemic.

On March 13, 2020, a 76-year-old man who died in Karnataka while being treated for suspected coronavirus became India's first COVID-19 fatality. Nearly seven months later, it crossed the grim milestone of the one-lakh mark on October 2.

The country's death toll had crossed three lakh-mark on May 23 and two lakh-mark on April 27. In May, India recorded 1.17 lakh deaths - the highest for any month so far in India.

India reached 4 lakh covid fatalities, 217 days after crossing 4 lakh on July 1, 2021. India presently is facing a third wave of Covid driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant. However, according to experts, cases are mostly mild this in comparison to the second wave.

A decline in COVID-19 case fatality rate has been attributed to an increase in administration of vaccine doses.