India's COVID-19 caseload could jump to 20 lakh by Aug 10, warns Rahul Gandhi

As the coronavirus cases in the country increase at a rapid pace, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday that the COVID-19 caseload could jump to 20 lakh by the second week of August. 

“Figures exceeds 10,00,000. If #COVID19 spreads at the same speed, more than 20,00,000 will be infected in the country by August 10. The government should take strong, planned action,” Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

10,00,000 का आँकड़ा पार हो गया।

इसी तेज़ी से #COVID19 फैला तो 10 अगस्त तक देश में 20,00,000 से ज़्यादा संक्रमित होंगे।

सरकार को महामारी रोकने के लिए ठोस, नियोजित कदम उठाने चाहिए। https://t.co/fMxijUM28r

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 17, 2020

Gandhi also tagged a news report in which World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reportedly stated “there will be no return to the old normal" if concrete steps were not taken.

India's COVID-19 tally on Friday crossed the 10 lakh-mark after 34,956 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

With a million cases, India is now just behind US (3.7 million) and Brazil (two million).

As per numbers from the Health Ministry, there are 3,42,473 active cases in the country while 6,35,756 patients have been cured or discharged. One patient has been migrated.

As many as 687 new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours in the country due to COVID-19, taking the number of patients succumbing to the virus to 25,602.

It took 137 days for India to reach a million positive cases. The cases increased drastically after the Centre announced relaxations to the nationwide lockdown. In the last one week, India saw an average of 30,076 cases a day. For the sake of comparison, the average was 23,895 in the previous week. 

Experts claim that the next one million cases may take less than one month with the current rate of new cases. The doubling rate presently stands at 20.6 days.