NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The number of daily COVID-19 cases in India nearly doubled on Monday from the previous day, surpassing 2,000 for the first time in a month, according to Indian government data, while the southern state of Kerala. reported a significant increase in deaths from the disease.
India was one of the countries hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic at this time last year, but the situation has since improved and most precautions, including the use of face masks, have recently been abandoned.
However, cases in the country of 1.35 billion people rose, with 2,183 new infections reported on Monday, bringing the total to more than 43 million, according to Indian Health Ministry data.
The ministry reported another 214 deaths, including 151 since April 13, in the southern state of Kerala, which is seen as releasing more accurate data than many other states in the country.
India has reported a total of about 522,000 deaths from the coronavirus, although many world experts have said the true number could be as high as 4 million out of several hundred million infections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has repeatedly rejected these high estimates, saying that the mathematical models used to calculate deaths in smaller countries cannot be trusted for India.
In addition to Kerala, the capital, New Delhi, and the states of Maharashtra and Haryana have seen triple increases in infections in the past 24 hours.
However, hospitalizations remained low, although these numbers have also increased in recent days since all restrictions were lifted.
(Reporting by Krishna in Das; Editing by Robert Percelle; Translated by Dario Fernandez)
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