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World COVID-19 cases close to 30 million; India tops 5M

India has reported more than 90,000 cases in six of the last seven days. Photo by Farooq Khan/EPA-EFE
India has reported more than 90,000 cases in six of the last seven days. Photo by Farooq Khan/EPA-EFE

Sept. 16 (UPI) -- As the world inches toward 30 million coronavirus cases, India on Wednesday surpassed the 5 million infections milestone, becoming only the second nation to hit the grim marker as it continues to report more than 90,000 cases a day.

India's ministry health on Wednesday announced there were 90,123 infections counted in the last day, lifting its total cases to 5,020,359.

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Its new total puts it second behind the United States with 6.6 million infections for the sickest country to the pandemic, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

India has been dealing with essentially unabated spread of the virus since its first infections were diagnosed in late January, but the situation has deepened as the Asian nation has counted more than 90,000 cases in six of the last seven days, accounting for more than 650,000 infections.

On Friday, India recorded more than 97,000 cases, breaking the record for most cases in a single day that it set a day prior.

In September, India has already reported more than 1 million infections.

Despite the climbing cases, the country continues to post a low death rate.

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Its health ministry said it has a mortality rate of 1.6%, well below the United States' 3%, China's 5.2% and Britain's 11.2%, which is third highest only behind Italy's' 12.3% and Yemen's nearly 30% death rate, according to data presented by Johns Hopkins University.

On Wednesday, its ministry of health reported 1,290 deaths to the virus for a total of 82,066, which placed India third behind Brazil with 133,119 deaths and the United States with 195,942.

Worldwide, cases crept closer the 30 million mark after a staggering 380,492 cases were counted in the past 24 hours, pushing its total to 29,593,883, the Baltimore-based university said, adding the global death toll also increased by some 7,700 lives lost to 935,446.

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