India reports 267,334 new COVID-19 infections

On May 19, 2021

India has reported 267,334 new daily infections on Wednesday, taking its tally to 25.5 million with a death toll of 283,248, health ministry data showed.

Nearly two-thirds of people tested in India have shown exposure to the novel coronavirus, indicating a runaway spread of the virus as the daily death toll rose to a record 4,529.

The United States has had more cases, a worse single day death toll, when it lost 5,444 people on Feb. 12.

With a downturn in the number of new cases in India over the past few days, if not in deaths, experts said there was no certainty that infections had peaked.

The official figures grossly underestimate the real impact of the epidemic, with some experts saying infections and deaths could be five to 10 times higher.

There are fears that, the new highly infectious variant is out of control and that many cases are going unreported because of lack of testing, particularly in the vast countryside.

Kamila/Reuters

COVID-19 India