India sets world's highest single-day rise with 78,761 new virus cases

NEW DELHI/PARIS-Agence France-Presse

India, home to 1.3 billion people, is already the world's third-most infected nation with more than 3.5 million cases, behind the U.S. and Brazil.  

It has also reported more than 63,000 deaths.    

The U.S. set the previous record on July 17 with 77,638 daily infections, according to an AFP tally.    

India's grim milestone came a day after the government further eased its coronavirus lockdown, in place since late March, to boost the struggling economy.    

Millions have lost their jobs since the start of the lockdown, with the poor particularly hard hit.    

The Home Affairs Ministry said gatherings of up to 100 people would be allowed with face masks and social distancing at cultural, entertainment, sports and political events from next month.    

Metro train services would also resume "in a graded manner" in major cities.    

The coronavirus has badly hit megacities such as financial hub Mumbai and the capital New Delhi, but is now also surging in smaller cities and rural areas.    

Schools remain closed but students can meet teachers on a voluntary basis on school premises if needed, according to the new guidelines.

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 838,271 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Aug. 29.

At least 24,795,760 cases have been registered. Of these, at least 15,976,700 are now considered recovered.    

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.    

Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.    

On Aug. 28, 5,751 new deaths and 287,081 new cases were recorded worldwide. Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were the United States with 1,177, followed by India with 1,021 and Brazil with 855.    

The United States is the worst-hit country with 181,779 deaths from 5,918,381 cases. At least 2,118,367 people have been declared recovered.    

After the U.S., the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 119,504 deaths from 3,804,803 cases, Mexico with 63,164 deaths from 585,738 cases, India with over 63,000 deaths from more than 3.5 million cases, and the United Kingdom with 41,486 deaths from 331,644 cases.    

The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Peru with 86 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Belgium with 85, Spain 62, United Kingdom 61, and Italy 59.    

China - excluding Hong Kong and Macau - has to date declared 85,022 cases, including 4,634 deaths and 80,126 recoveries.    

Latin America and the Caribbean overall has 271,686 deaths from 7,137,854 cases, Europe 214,884 deaths from 3,898,042 infections, and the United States and Canada 190,924 deaths from 6,045,739 cases.    

Asia has reported 95,137 deaths from 4,979,953 cases, the Middle East 35,902 deaths from 1,474,828 cases, Africa 29,097 deaths from 1,230,662 cases, and Oceania 641 deaths from 28,690 cases.    

As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day's tallies.