COVID-19: India now pandemic’s second-worst-hit country behind US

Increasing coronavirus caseload made India the pandemic’s second-worst-hit country behind the US on Monday, The Associated Press reported.

The 90,802 cases added in the past 24 hours pushed India’s total past Brazil with 4.2 million cases.

India is now only behind the US, where more than 6.2 million people have been infected, according to Johns Hopkins University.

India’s Health Ministry on Monday also reported 1,016 deaths for a total of 71,642, the third-highest national toll, The Associated Press reported.

India has been recording the world’s largest daily increases in coronavirus cases for almost a month.

Over 2 million new cases were reported in the past month and the virus spreading through the country’s smaller towns and villages, The Associated Press said.

It said almost 60 percent of India’s active cases are coming from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

But infections are also returning to areas that had managed to slow the spread of the virus, offsetting marginal gains.