India is having "very low" number of COVID-19 cases in terms of cases per million population as compared to other countries, said Dr Randeep Guleria, Director of Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), on Friday.
"Although India has gone up to the fourth rank as far as COVID-19 cases are concerned, we have to accept that because of the population we have. Our population is more than in many countries in Europe. Therefore, if we look at the number of cases per million population, we are still very low in terms of number of cases," Guleria told .
"We have less number of deaths due to COVID-19. We will have cases owning to a large number of population, but if we are able to save lives and the number of death is less, we will be more successful in this fight against COVID-19," he said.
Commenting upon the data of cases projected by Delhi government, according to which there will be around 2.25 lakh cases till July 15 and the cases will reach around 5.5 lakh till July 31, Guleria said, "I personally think that this may not be true. The number of cases in Delhi may not be as high as predicted. But having said that I will say still whatever be the number, we have to increase our capacity so that we can manage increasing load that the healthcare system is going to get."
"We must plan to keep in mind the surging number of cases. The cases may not rise as predicted but we have to be prepared," he added.
As per the Union Health Ministry, there are 34,687 confirmed cases in Delhi including 20,871 active cases and 12,731 cured/discharged/migrated and 1,085 deaths.
According to the Union Health Ministry, India has confirmed 2,97,535 coronavirus cases so far, including 1,41,842 active cases, 1,47,195 cured/discharged/migrated and 8,498 fatalities.
( With inputs from ANI )