India touches 20 million cases of coronavirus after adding 368,147 new infections in one day

The India this Monday was a few thousand cases of reaching 20 million infections by coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, in a day in which it registered 368,147 new positives and 3,417 deaths.

These new figures, which represent a slight drop for the second day in a row after the country surpassed the barrier of 400,000 positives for the first time on Saturday, raised infections to 19.9 million infections, according to data from the Indian Ministry of Health.

The 3,417 new deaths registered in the last 24 hours brought the total of deaths to 218,959, an official figure that according to many experts could actually be higher.

This mortality figure also represents a slight decrease compared to the data recorded yesterday, although this country of about 1,350 million inhabitants continues to report the highest death figures on the planet.

The second most affected country in the world in absolute terms by the pandemic, only behind the United States (32.4 million), is immersed in a vertiginous second wave that has put its health system on the limit, with oxygen shortage and beds in big cities like New Delhi.

The Asian country sees in the vaccination campaign the great way out of this health crisis, especially after the new phase that began last weekend in which the beneficiaries were extended to all those over 18 years of age, compared to those over 45 years prior, although some regions announced that they have not yet been able to start immunizing the population in this age range due to lack of doses.

The rate of vaccination has been slow since the start of the vaccination campaign in January, with some 157 million doses administered so far.

In the last 24 hours, the country administered just 1.2 million vaccines, one of the lowest numbers recorded in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, more than 40 countries have started sending aid to India to cooperate in the fight against the pandemic, with a critical situation of lack of oxygen in hospitals or medicines to treat the most serious patients.