India Passes 300,000 COVID-19 Deaths
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- Published May 24, 2021
![India Passes 300,000 COVID-19 Deaths](https://i.swncdn.com/media/700w/via/20395-covid-19-india-gettyimages-anindito-mukherjee.jpg)
As India continues to grapple with the novel coronavirus, on Monday, the county’s COVID-19 death toll surpassed 300,000 people.
According to the Associated Press, on Monday, India’s Health Ministry reported 4,454 news COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the country’s total to more than 300,000.
World-O-Meter reports that nearly 27 million people in India have contracted COVID-19 since the pandemic began. Of those who contracted the virus, more than 23.8 million have recovered, and 304,768 have died.
According to India’s Health Ministry, this milestone comes as many people have been forced to miss out on getting vaccinated because of slowed vaccine delivery. Doctors are also reportedly becoming increasingly concerned about the development of a "rare but fatal fungal infection" in some COVID-19 patients, the AP reports.
India currently has the third-highest death toll in the world, only behind the United States and Brazil. The country accounts for 8.6 percent of the more than 34.7 million coronavirus deaths around the world.
As Christian Headlines previously reported, last month, India was hit hard by a second wave of COVID-19 infections. The rate at which people were getting sick became so severe that the nation’s medical system nearly collapsed. According to the AP, the rate of infections has begun to slow in big, heavily populated cities. Infection rates in the “poorer countryside,” however, have begun to climb.
With increased COVID-19 infections came a lack of oxygen and medical supplies in hospitals and increased food insecurity.
As Christian Headlines reported in April, Christian humanitarian aid organizations like Samaritan’s Purse and World Vision responded to this crisis by providing food and medical supplies to the hardest-hit areas.
“Samaritan’s Purse is working with partners on the ground to help bring practical relief, encouragement, and hope to people who are suffering,” an April 26 press release on the Samaritan’s Purse website reads. “In one hard-hit area, we’re supporting a local hospital by providing urgently needed medical supplies to bolster their capacity. The facility’s COVID-19 intensive care unit has recently expanded from 15 beds to 74, with many patients requiring ventilation and round-the-clock care.”
Samaritan’s Purse also noted that they were collaborating with local partners to help distribute urgently needed food to families in need.
In an April 28 statement from World Vision, the Christian aid group noted that it is “working in some of India’s worst-hit areas and is supporting health facilities and vulnerable families in the wake of a COVID-19 second wave in India.”
Related:
Christian Aid Organizations Launch COVID-19 Relief Efforts in India As Death Toll Tops 200,000
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Anindito Mukherjee/Stringer
Kayla Koslosky is the former Editor of ChristianHeadlines.com. She has B.A. degrees in English and History and previously wrote for and was the managing editor of the Yellow Jacket newspaper. She has also contributed to IBelieve.com and Crosswalk.com.