COVID-19: India’s confirmed caseload surpasses 8 million

India’s confirmed coronavirus caseload surpassed 8 million on Thursday with daily infections dipping to the lowest level this week, according to The Associated Press.

Dr. T. Jacob John, a retired virologist, warned that the ongoing festival season was likely to increase the speed of the viral spread, resulting in localized outbreaks where people gathered without masks and did not adhere to social distancing.

India’s trajectory is moving toward the worst-hit country, the US, which has over 8.8 million cases.

The Health Ministry reported another 49,881 infections and 517 fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 120,527.

India saw a steep rise in cases in July and added more than 2 million in August and another 3 million in September, according to The Associated Press.

But it is seeing a slower pace of coronavirus spread since mid-September, when daily infections touched a record of 97,894 with the highest number of deaths at 1,275.

According to the Health Ministry, more than 7.3 million Indians have recovered from COVID-19.