Coronavirus latest: India surges past 1 million cases in grim milestone

With more than 600 Indians dying daily, lockdowns are being reimposed across the country of 1.4 billion after an easing of restrictions in recent weeks

Indonesia’s capital of Jakarta will also maintain social distancing restrictions for a further two weeks in response to its latest spike in infections

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Doctors and nurses wearing protective gear look after a Covid-19 patient at a hospital’s intensive care unit in Greater Noida, India’s Uttar Pradesh, earlier this week. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:28pm, 17 Jul 2020Updated: 6:10pm, 17 Jul 2020

India saw its coronavirus cases exceed 1 million on Friday, becoming the third country to cross that mark, as the novel pathogen continues to spread rapidly in the world’s second-most-populous nation.

The South Asian country now trails only the United States and Brazil, which have 3.6 million and 2 million infections respectively, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows.

With almost 1.4 billion people, India’s population is more than double that of the other two countries combined and is squeezed into a smaller land mass, implying the virus has plenty more room to run. Though India imposed the world’s most-expansive lockdown at the end of March with fewer than 1,000 cases, it could not suppress viral transmission. As the economy nosedived, the government eased distancing measures, causing the cases to spike.

Now senior members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government have begun telling citizens they must “live with the virus” as they focus on India’s relatively low fatality rate as a marker of success, and try to build capacity to catch sick people early and treat them.

People wait for Covid-19 testing in a slum area in Jammu, India, on Thursday. Photo: EPA

So far, three states – Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu – have accounted for the majority of cases. But in India’s vast countryside, which is much less prepared and with weaker health care, the pandemic is clearly growing.

“The acceleration in cases remains the main challenge for India in the coming days,” said Dr Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, adding that the vast majority of cases were still being missed.

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