India suffers record jump in COVID-19 cases to pass 2 mln

India, the country hardest hit in Asia by the coronavirus pandemic, reported on Friday a record daily jump in infections, taking its total number of cases over two million.

It is the third nation to pass that unwanted milestone, lagging behind only the United States and Brazil.

With infections spreading further to smaller towns and rural areas, experts say the epidemic in India is likely to be months away from hitting its peak, putting more strain on an already overburdened healthcare system.

And authorities are having to deal with multiple outbreaks across a nation of 1.3 billion people.

“A country of India’s size and diversity has multiple epidemics in different phases,” said Rajib Dasgupta, head of the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

The health ministry said on Friday there were 62,538 new infections, taking the country’s total to 2.03 million.

India has been posting an average of around 50,000 new cases a day since mid-June, but experts say its testing rate at 16,035 per million people is far too low.