India reaches two million Covid-19 cases amidst health workers strike

India has hit another negative milestone during its uphill battle against the coronavirus with the country's confirmed number of cases going past the two million mark on Friday with a death toll of more than 41,000.

In the meantime, (ASHA) community health workers are going on strike as they complain about the lack of resources health workers in rural areas are suffering from in contrast to the cities where the majority of resources and efforts are being focused. The health workers believe this is the reason for the uneven impact the virus spread has on rural areas and cities.

India case load still rising

The Health Ministry has reported 62,538 cases in the past 24 hours, raising the nation's case tally to 2,027,074, while the death toll increased by 886 individuals to reach 41,585.

India now has the third-highest caseload after US and Brazil, and the fifth-highest number of deaths although the health ministry has recently announced that India's fatality rate dropped down to almost 2% which is a relatively good rate compared to the worst-hit countries during the pandemic as the U.S is reporting a 3.3% fatality rate while the rate is 3.4% in Brazil according to Johns Hopkins University.

India has been struggling with the surging Covid-19 spread in most states especially after the government's decision to gradually lift lockdown restrictions that lasted for months in an attempt to rescue the country's stagnant economy. A move that forced some states' governments to temporarily bring back some of the restrictions to contain the virus spread. However, life partially came back to the streets of the capital New Delhi and Mumbai as they seem to be past their Covid-19 peak.