India overtakes Russia to become country with world’s third highest number of coronavirus cases, with nearly 700,000 infections
- India’s health ministry said 697,358 cases have now been recorded
- The figure marks an increase of 24,000 new cases in the past 24 hours
- India is now the world’s third worst-affected country, behind US and Brazil
India has overtaken Russia to become the country with the world’s third highest number of coronavirus cases, with nearly 700,000 infections.
The health ministry said 697,358 cases had now been recorded, a rise of 24,000 in the last 24 hours, while Russia has just over 681,000 cases.
India has registered 19,693 deaths from the virus, a much lower number than many other badly hit countries.
India has overtaken Russia to become the country with the world’s third highest number of coronavirus cases, with nearly 700,000 infections. Above, volunteers distribute free food during the pandemic in Guwahati on July 5
There have been almost 20,000 deaths in India since the first case was detected there in January.
India is now the world’s third worst-affected country, behind only the United States and Brazil.
It has seen eight times the number of cases as China, that has a similar-sized population and is where the virus originated late last year.
India’s health ministry said 697,358 cases had now been recorded, a rise of 24,000 in the last 24 hours, while Russia has just over 681,000 cases
Workers clean an artifical water channel at the 16th century Mughal monument Humayun’s Tomb, after it was reopened for visitors which was closed since mid-March as part of measures to try and combat the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, in New Delhi on July 6
Officials said they had reversed a decision to reopen the Taj Mahal, India’s most famous tourist attraction, in the city of Agra, 125 miles southeast of New Delhi, on Monday, following a spate of new cases in the area.
India’s Culture Ministry had decided to reopen all monuments across the country on Monday after more than three months with a cap on the number of visitors and mandatory wearing of face masks.
After a strict nationwide lockdown, India has eased restrictions in most of the country except for the highest-risk areas.
The Kerala state capital, Thiruvananthapuram imposed a new lockdown from Monday with public transport shut and only pharmacies allowed to open. Above, a banner displays masks for sale in Kochi, Kerala state
The country’s major cities have been worst hit by the pandemic. New Delhi and Mumbai each have about 100,000 cases, with 3,000 dead in the capital and nearly 5,000 in Mumbai.
New Delhi has opened a new 10,000-bed temporary virus hospital while other cities are tightening restrictions on movement to head off a new surge in cases.
The Kerala state capital, Thiruvananthapuram imposed a new lockdown from Monday with public transport shut and only pharmacies allowed to open.
The clampdown came after hundreds of new cases were reported across the state, which had been praised for its action to curtail the pandemic.