Three of every four Covid-19 cases in Asia come from India despite the country’s population of 135 crore being less than one-third of the continent’s population of 460 crore.
India’s record on testing is also dismal compared to other Asian nations. On the yardstick of testing per million populations, India is way below most Asian countries, in some cases even 20 times less than its geographical neighbours.
This is just the starting point of analysing the pattern of the spread of coronavirus in Asia, and particularly in the Indian sub-continent comprising India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Interestingly, as many as 23 Asian countries have less than 20,000 total cases. Seven of the Asian countries did not report even a single case on Saturday.
Asia reported 1,03,000 new cases on Saturday whereas India alone contributed 78,000 of them. Overall, Asia’s caseload stood at 68,88,876 is nearly double than of India’s total.
The countries which did not report a single case on Saturday are Magnolia, Cambodia, Brunei, Macao, Timor Leste, Oman, and Laos.
The Covid situation is under complete control in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, and several other countries whereas Bangladesh is trying to put out the fear of a second wave.
Pakistan reported 319 new cases on Saturday, Sri Lanka 6, Bhutan 11, Maldives 109, and Nepal 844. Among India’s immediate neighbours only Bangladesh reported more than 2,000 cases.
Iraq, the Philippines, and Indonesia are among some of the countries where the Covid situation is still giving hiccups. They reported 3,834; 3,614 and 3,300 cases respectively on Saturday whereas Iran recorded 1,901 cases.
Incidentally, much has been said about how people of these Asian countries have higher immunity because of climatic condition and heavy use of anti-malaria drugs and vaccines over a period of time.
The case of Pakistan is interesting. The country last reported 1,000 plus cases —1,114 to be precise — on July 30. Since then in one month, their numbers of cases have steadily declined while India’s number has been on a one-way rise.
Pakistan has now 2.95 lakh cases and is placed behind Bangladesh 3.8 lakh cases, Saudi Arabia 3.13 lakh cases, and Iran 3.71 lakh cases. Of course India remains on top with nearly 3.6 million cases.
It’s not that India is recording bigger spikes because it carries a higher number of tests. As per data, India has conducted 29,000 tests per million population, far below UAE 6.98 lakh tests /1 M pop; Bahrain 6.40 lakh tests/1 m pop; Israel 2.41 lakh tests/1 M pop; Qatar 2.20 lakh tests/ 1M pop; Saudi Arabia 1.44 lakh tests/ 1M pop; Kuwait 1.42 lakh tests/1 M pop; Turkey 82.110 tests/m pop; Iraq 38,000 tests/ 1m pop and the Philippines 22,905 tests/per million population.
India is ahead of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Myanmar, Cambodia and some other smaller countries in terms of testing.
India on Saturday crossed over 3.53 million coronavirus cases, with an average of 72,000-75,000 cases per day during the last four weeks. With this rate of a spike, India is expected to pip Brazil to the second spot by September 10.
