India has become the third country to record more than 1m coronavirus infections, following the US and Brazil, as it reported 34,956 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking the national total to 1,003,832.
Amid evidence that the disease was taking hold in poorer, rural areas less well-served by public healthcare, the latest tally prompted renewed concerns about the country’s ability to cope with rising infections.
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The figures have been released after a week in which authorities in India were forced to impose new lockdowns, including fresh restrictions on 128 million people in the state of Bihar, which came into force on Thursday.
The continuing and escalating outbreaks, on top of record cases in the US – which passed 75,000 daily cases in the last count – has dampened hopes that the pandemic is anywhere close to being brought under control, even as researchers race to find a viable vaccine.
Three states – Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu – account for more than half of the total cases in India far. Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, warned the vast majority of cases in the country were still being missed.
Source: Global report: coronavirus infections in India pass 1m mark
