India has 3,874 COVID deaths as data suggest runaway infections Coronavirus pandemic News

India has reported 276,110 new cases, with nearly two-thirds of people tested showing exposure to COVID-19, according to a chain of private labs.

India has reported 276,110 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, and the death toll has risen to 3,874, with nearly two-thirds of people surveyed showing exposure to COVID-19, a chain of private labs said the virus has spread as a fugitive.

The pollution in the South Asian nation is 25.77 million, with 287,122 dead, health ministry data showed on Thursday.

India has been hit hard by the pandemic for months, with a new variant found there causing an increase of more than 400,000 new infections a day.

With hospitals and incinerators overcrowded and the health care system overwhelmed, it is widely accepted that official figures underestimate the real impact of the epidemic, with some experts saying infections and deaths could be five to 10 times higher.

It is feared that the new highly contagious variant is out of control and that many cases have not been reported due to lack of studies, especially in the open countryside.

Thyrocare, a chain of private labs, seems to be showing support for these fears, with 63.5% of people on average giving a positive COVID-19 antibody over the past seven days, up from 45 percent a month ago.

Data from 25 states includes people who have been infected in the past, vaccinated, uncontaminated and unvaccinated, Arokiaswamy Velumani, CEO of the company, said on Twitter.

Criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has intensified, but former member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council M Govinda Rao said the rate at which the virus was spreading had caught everyone by surprise.

“The unprecedented speed at which the second wave of the pandemic has spread has also caught the (state) government and people,” Raok told the Hindu newspaper.

The daily tests hit a record two million on Tuesday, data from the Indian Medical Research Council showed.

However, the daily tests in India are worth 3.3 million, said Rijo M John, a professor at Rajagiri University of Social Sciences in the southern city of Kochi.

John also questioned the usefulness of the evidence.

“A lot of these tests are being rolled out in urban areas, which may be the top case in these cases, so it doesn’t have much of a purpose,” John said. “It’s time to divert more rural areas, but I doubt he’s doing that.”

Modi’s acceptance has fallen sharply, according to two surveys.

The CVOTER polling agency found that Modi had been there for the first time in seven years, that there were more people than happy with his government’s activities.

Hospitals have had to keep patients away while funeral homes and crematoria have been unable to make the congestion.

Photographs and television images of the funeral pyres burning in the car parks and the bodies being washed up on the banks of the Ganges River have created more patience for the government.

India is the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines, but criticism has also arisen in the slow-moving vaccine campaign, plagued by a shortage of supplies.

The government said about 98% of the 1.35 billion population has the capacity to pollute.

India halted vaccine exports a month ago and given or sold more than 66 million doses and government sources told Reuters news agency that large vaccine exports are unlikely to recover until October as it prioritises domestic needs.