India’s Coronavirus Cases Top 2 Million – More Than 62,000 Reported In One Day

Enlarge this image

Despite reaching a new benchmark in coronavirus cases, it’s possible India’s cases are undercounted due to the lack of widespread testing. Here, coronavirus patients play a game of carrom inside the COVID-19 Care Centre at CWG Village Sports Complex in New Delhi on Thursday.

Mohd Zakir/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Mohd Zakir/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Goats and Soda
Coronavirus World Map: Tracking The Spread Of The Outbreak

In India’s outbreak, the western state of Maharashtra, where Mumbai is located, is the worst-hit, with around 480,000 cases reported. But the coronavirus has also infected hundreds of thousands of people in southern states such as Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

«The virus has moved from megacities like Mumbai and Delhi to smaller towns and rural areas, where health care is already scant,» NPR’s Lauren Frayer reports. «Experts say it’s months away from hitting its peak.»

Despite reaching the daunting benchmark, it’s possible India’s cases are undercounted, due to the lack of widespread testing in one of the world’s largest and most populous countries. On Thursday, only 639,042 coronavirus tests were conducted in the country, according to India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Goats and Soda
What 6 Of The 7 Countries With The Most COVID-19 Cases Have In Common

The U.S. has posted similar daily testing figures in the past month – but the U.S. population is far smaller, with 330 million people compared to India’s 1.3 billion.

As the world awaits a COVID-19 vaccine, a large vaccine maker in India announced on Friday that it will produce up to 100 million doses of a future vaccine and price each dose at $3 or less, for sales in India and to low- and middle-income countries.

The Serum Institute of India says its plan is supported by $150 million in funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

«The funding will support at-risk manufacturing by SII for candidate vaccines from AstraZeneca and Novavax,» the company says.

• COVID-19
• coronavirus
• India