India records more than 69,000 new cases, with its overall tally now close to three million

On: August 22, 2020

India counted another record number of new coronavirus infections Thursday as it ramped up testing to more than 900,000 a day.

The 69,652 new cases pushed India’s total past 2.8 million, of which 2 million have recovered, the Health Ministry said.

The country also recorded 977 coronavirus fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising its total deaths to 53,866, the ministry said.

COVID-19 illnesses and deaths are thought to be far higher around the world due to limited testing and other factors.

India has conducted 3 million tests for the virus, but experts have urged increasing its testing capacity greatly, since it has the world’s second-highest population of 1.4 billion people.

It has the third most cases in the world, behind the United States and Brazil, and the fourth highest number of deaths behind the U.S., Brazil and Mexico.