The Indian state of Punjab reported the highest number of active coronavirus (COVID-19) cases of over one thousand cases as of October 20, 2023. Kerala and Karnataka followed, with relatively lower casualties. That day, there were a total of over 44 million confirmed infections across India.

In October 2020, Tripura recorded the highest COVID-19 deaths per million people compared to to other states and Union territories with 77 deaths. Uttarakhand followed with over 71 deaths per million people.

Indicators such as case fatality and doubling time are used to measure the spread of the disease. The total deaths per million is considered to be a good indicator, to better measure and understand, the efficacy of the measures undertaken to control the spread of the virus. A slacked increase along with a fall in the number of new deaths per day is suggestive of a good control indicator.

India reported almost 45 million cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) as of October 20, 2023, with more than 44 million recoveries and about 532 thousand fatalities. The number of cases in the country had a decreasing trend in the past months.

Burden on the healthcare system

With the world's second largest population in addition to an even worse second wave of the coronavirus pandemic seems to be crushing an already inadequate healthcare system. Despite vast numbers being vaccinated, a new variant seemed to be affecting younger age groups this time around. The lack of ICU beds, black market sales of oxygen cylinders and drugs needed to treat COVID-19, as well as overworked crematoriums resorting to mass burials added to the woes of the country. Foreign aid was promised from various countries including the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Additionally, funding from the central government was expected to boost vaccine production.

Situation overview
Even though days in April 2021 saw record-breaking numbers compared to any other country worldwide, a nation-wide lockdown has not been implemented. The largest religious gathering - the Kumbh Mela, sacred to the Hindus, along with election rallies in certain states continue to be held. Some states and union territories including Maharashtra, Delhi, and Karnataka had issued curfews and lockdowns to try to curb the spread of infections.

Based on a comparison of coronavirus deaths in 210 countries relative to their population, Peru had the most losses to COVID-19 up until July 13, 2022. As of the same date, the virus had infected over 557.8 million people worldwide, and the number of deaths had totaled more than 6.3 million. Note, however, that COVID-19 test rates can vary per country. Additionally, big differences show up between countries when combining the number of deaths against confirmed COVID-19 cases. The source seemingly does not differentiate between "the Wuhan strain" (2019-nCOV) of COVID-19, "the Kent mutation" (B.1.1.7) that appeared in the UK in late 2020, the 2021 Delta variant (B.1.617.2) from India or the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) from South Africa.

The difficulties of death figures

This table aims to provide a complete picture on the topic, but it very much relies on data that has become more difficult to compare. As the coronavirus pandemic developed across the world, countries already used different methods to count fatalities, and they sometimes changed them during the course of the pandemic. On April 16, for example, the Chinese city of Wuhan added a 50 percent increase in their death figures to account for community deaths. These deaths occurred outside of hospitals and went unaccounted for so far. The state of New York did something similar two days before, revising their figures with 3,700 new deaths as they started to include “assumed” coronavirus victims. The United Kingdom started counting deaths in care homes and private households on April 29, adjusting their number with about 5,000 new deaths (which were corrected lowered again by the same amount on August 18). This makes an already difficult comparison even more difficult. Belgium, for example, counts suspected coronavirus deaths in their figures, whereas other countries have not done that (yet). This means two things. First, it could have a big impact on both current as well as future figures. On April 16 already, UK health experts stated that if their numbers were corrected for community deaths like in Wuhan, the UK number would change from 205 to “above 300”. This is exactly what happened two weeks later. Second, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly which countries already have “revised” numbers (like Belgium, Wuhan or New York) and which ones do not. One work-around could be to look at (freely accessible) timelines that track the reported daily increase of deaths in certain countries. Several of these are available on our platform, such as for Belgium, Italy and Sweden. A sudden large increase might be an indicator that the domestic sources changed their methodology.

Where are these numbers coming from?

The numbers shown here were collected by Johns Hopkins University, a source that manually checks the data with domestic health authorities. For the majority of countries, this is from national authorities. In some cases, like China, the United States, Canada or Australia, city reports or other various state authorities were consulted. In this statistic, these separately reported numbers were put together. For more information or other freely accessible content, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

This dataset provides values for CORONAVIRUS DEATHS reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

Uttar Pradesh had the highest testing for the coronavirus (COVID-19) across India as of October 17, 2021, at over 81 million tests. Sikkim ranked lowest at only 255 thousand samples tested during the same time period.

As of May 2, 2023, the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) had been confirmed in almost every country in the world. The virus had infected over 687 million people worldwide, and the number of deaths had reached almost 6.87 million. The most severely affected countries include the U.S., India, and Brazil.

COVID-19: background information COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus that had not previously been identified in humans. The first case was detected in the Hubei province of China at the end of December 2019. The virus is highly transmissible and coughing and sneezing are the most common forms of transmission, which is similar to the outbreak of the SARS coronavirus that began in 2002 and was thought to have spread via cough and sneeze droplets expelled into the air by infected persons.

Naming the coronavirus disease Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that can be transmitted between animals and people, causing illnesses that may range from the common cold to more severe respiratory syndromes. In February 2020, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses and the World Health Organization announced official names for both the virus and the disease it causes: SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, respectively. The name of the disease is derived from the words corona, virus, and disease, while the number 19 represents the year that it emerged.

As of May 2, 2023, the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) had spread to almost every country in the world, and more than 6.86 million people had died after contracting the respiratory virus. Over 1.16 million of these deaths occurred in the United States.

Waves of infections Almost every country and territory worldwide have been affected by the COVID-19 disease. At the end of 2021 the virus was once again circulating at very high rates, even in countries with relatively high vaccination rates such as the United States and Germany. As rates of new infections increased, some countries in Europe, like Germany and Austria, tightened restrictions once again, specifically targeting those who were not yet vaccinated. However, by spring 2022, rates of new infections had decreased in many countries and restrictions were once again lifted.

What are the symptoms of the virus? It can take up to 14 days for symptoms of the illness to start being noticed. The most commonly reported symptoms are a fever and a dry cough, leading to shortness of breath. The early symptoms are similar to other common viruses such as the common cold and flu. These illnesses spread more during cold months, but there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that temperature impacts the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Medical advice should be sought if you are experiencing any of these symptoms.

The Indian state of Utter Pradesh reported the highest number of administered doses of the vaccine against the coronavirus (COVID-19) as of November 13, 2023. Furthermore, over 2.2 billion total vaccine doses were administered in India during the same time period.

Vaccination in India were administered since January 16, 2021, with the administration of vaccines to all health care workers in the first phase. In February, the vaccination program was expanded to cover front line workers. The second phase of the program began in March which included citizens above the age of 60 and subsequently, people above the age of 45 with comorbidities. India’s vaccination program currently includes two vaccines, namely, Oxford University – AstraZeneca’s Covidshield vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech Covaxin. Russia's Sputnik V was expected to be added to the mix starting May 2021.