India reports over 400,000 coronavirus infections in a single day
- The country has a caseload of 19.1 million infections and over 211,000 deaths, but officials suspect the real number is much higher
- This came as India opened vaccinations to all adults and a fire at a Gujarat hospital killed 16 Covid-19 patients and two nurses
According to the health ministry, 401,993 new infections were registered, taking the total caseload to 19.1 million. There were 3,523 deaths, bringing the toll to 211,853.
Many experts suspect that because of insufficient testing and inaccurate recording of cause of death, the real numbers are much higher.
Indian authorities lowered their guard in the early part of the year after infections fell below 10,000 per day, lifting restrictions on most activities.
Mass religious gatherings such as the Kumbh Mela, attracting millions of Hindu pilgrims, and political rallies were allowed to continue even when cases numbers began rising sharply in late March.
In April alone, India recorded around 7 million new infections. On a per-capita basis however India’s caseload remains low compared to many other countries.
The hard-hit capital New Delhi, meanwhile, extended its shutdown for another week while top US pandemic adviser Anthony Fauci said that India should go into a national lockdown for “a few weeks”.