Again, India sets record as COVID-19 cases cross 25m, deaths rise to 4,329 in one day

India has once again set another record after its COVID-19 infection cases rose to 25 million with the death toll rising to 4,329 on Tuesday, according to a Health Ministry official.

With the new figure, India has become the second country after the US to pass the milestone of recording more than 25 million infections.

A situation report by the World Health Organisation says the Asian country’s total coronavirus cases surge past the 25 million mark was boosted by 263,533 new infections over the last 24 hours.

World Health Organization’s chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan, said of the situation:

Read also: India’s COVID deaths rise by 4,205 to cross 250,000 mark

“The official count of daily cases began to decline last week, with new infections on Monday put at 281,386 – the first time cases dropped below 300,000 since April 21.

“But even with a downturn in infections over the past few days, there was no certainty that infections had peaked, with alarm growing at home and abroad over the new more contagious B.1.617 variant taking hold.

“There are still many parts of the country which have not yet experienced the peak, they are still going up.

“Testing is still inadequate in a large number of states. And when you see high test positivity rates, clearly we are not testing enough. And so the absolute numbers actually don’t mean anything when they are taken just by themselves; they have to be taken in the context of how much testing is done, and test positivity rate.”

By Isaac Dachen…

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