Covid toll crosses 1.5 lakh, last 25k rise in 2nd-longest period

India became the world’s third country to record more than 1.5 lakh deaths from the Covid-19 pandemic, with the toll crossing the grim milestone on Tuesday amid a general decline in fatalities. It took 60 days for the death toll to go from 1.25 lakh to 1.5 lakh, which was the slowest rise of 25,000 fatalities in the country since the initial 25,000 deaths that took 126 days. At the peak of the pandemic in September, India had recorded 25,000 deaths in 22 days.