India coronavirus cases surge past one million to third highest in world

India now has more than one million coronavirus cases – the third highest infection rate in the world behind the United States and Brazil.

The country's health officials provided an update on the latest COVID-19 data on Friday, as infections spread into towns and the countryside.

It comes after India lifted its lockdown of 1.3bn residents last month.

The country has reported 25,602 virus deaths, according to its health ministry, which is the eighth highest death toll in the world.

Only the US and Brazil have more cases, with America reporting more than 3.5 million and Brazil recently surpassing two million.

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On Thursday, US coronavirus deaths rose by 969 to more than 138,284 in total - the highest single-day increase since 10 June.

California, where lockdown restrictions have been reintroduced, is among the hotspots, alongside Arizona, Florida and Texas.

If Florida was a country, it would have had the fourth highest single-day spike in cases in the world - behind the US as a whole, India and Brazil - with a record 15,000 reported on Sunday.

President Donald Trump has experienced a dip in recent national opinion polls over his handling of the US outbreak, which has also resulted in 40 million people losing their jobs.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government's infectious disease expert, has warned that there will soon be 100,000 new cases every day if Americans do not observe social distancing measures and refuse to wear masks.

In Brazil, the number of confirmed cases stood at 2,012,151 on Friday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University, which has been tracking the outbreak.

Coronavirus took longer to reach Latin America, but it has become an epicentre of the worldwide pandemic, with Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro describing restrictions as "dictatorial".

More than 76,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Brazil, with the UK just behind it in global rankings with more than 45,000 deaths.

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