CANBERRA, Australia -- India reported nearly 25,000 new coronavirus infections Thursday, July 9, and its transmission rate is increasing for the first time since March.
The new cases bring the total in the world’s third worst-affected country to 767,296. India’s health ministry said the Covid-19 death toll had risen to 21,129.
Research by the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai shows that India’s virus reproduction rate ticked up in the first week of July to 1.19 after steadily falling from peak transmission of 1.83 in March.
India’s infection numbers have skyrocketed since lockdown restrictions were eased. At the same time, testing has ramped up to more than 200,000 samples a day, compared to just a few hundred in March.
Health experts said the true extent of the virus’s spread in India is unknown and more testing must be done, given its population of nearly 1.4 billion people. (AP)