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India hits 2.5 Million COVID-19 cases

Published On: August 15, 2020 12:00 PM NPT By: Associated Press

People wearing face masks and dressed in the colors of the national flag wait for the start of the Independence Day ceremony on the ramparts of the landmark Red fort monument in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020. India’s coronavirus death toll overtook Britain's to become the fourth-highest in the world with another single-day record increase in cases Friday. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

DELHI, Aug 15: India’s confirmed coronavirus cases have crossed 2.5 million with another biggest single-day spike of 65,002 in the past 24 hours.

India is behind the United States and Brazil in the number of cases.

The Health Ministry on Saturday also reported another 996 deaths for a total of 49,036. The average daily reported cases jumped from around 15,000 in the first week of July to more than 50,000 at the beginning of August.

The Health Ministry said the rise shows the extent of testing with 800,000 carried out in a single day. But experts say India needs to pursue testing more vigorously.

India’s two-month lockdown imposed nationwide in late March kept infections low. But it has eased and is now largely being enforced in high-risk areas.

The new cases spiked after India reopened shops and manufacturing and allowed hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to return to their homes from coronavirus-hit regions. Subways, schools and movie theaters remain closed.

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