India reported another single-day record high of new virus cases Friday. The 20,903 new cases took the national total to 6,25,544.
The Health Ministry also reported another 379 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking fatalities up to 18,213, said AP.
With the current rate of infections, India is expected to surpass Russia’s 660,000 cases in coming days and become the third worst-hit country after the United States and Brazil.
It has the eighth-most fatalities in the world, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally, but both numbers are thought to be far higher than has been confirmed around the world, Bahrain News Agency reported.
After a strict two-month lockdown, India has eased its restrictions in most of the country except for the highest-risk areas.