NEW DELHI -- India has reported more than 67,000 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, raising the country’s number of reported infections to 3.2 million with 1.5 million reported infections coming this month alone.

The Health Ministry on Wednesday, August 26, also reported 1,059 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total fatalities from the pandemic to 59,449.

India has been recording more than 60,000 new infections per day for the last two weeks, reaching a peak of 69,652 cases on August 19. New reported infections dropped to around 61,000 on Monday and Tuesday, but picked up again in the past 24 hours.

The ministry said India’s recovery rate was now around 76 percent with a fatality rate of 1.84 percent.

Even though the country of nearly 1.4 billion people has been slowly opening up to heal the economy, areas identified as most affected by the virus continue to remain under lockdown. (AP)