India reaches over 1 million COVID-19 cases

India on Friday surpassed 1 million coronavirus cases, joining the U.S. and Brazil as the only countries to reach the grim milestone around the world. 

There are 1,003,832 confirmed cases of coronavirus in India as of Friday morning, according to data by from Johns Hopkins University. The country has confirmed over 26,600 fatalities. 

The peak comes after the country’s health ministry reported a record 34,956 new infections in a 24-hour period on Friday, CNN reported.

Schools and university across India have been shuttered since March in an effort to slow the spread of the virus, The New York Times reported. The country’s government has called on school systems to limit online courses to just a few hours a day.

Over 100 million people in the country have lost their jobs amid the ongoing pandemic, with the country’s economy predicted to contract by an estimated 9.5 percent, according to the Times. 

In the beginning of the pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for masks and social distancing and imposed a nationwide lockdown that lasted nearly three months. But recently, he called for the leaders of India’s 28 states and 8 territories to “unlock” amid the economic hit from the pandemic, the Times noted. 

On Tuesday, health officials in Brazil announced that the country has surpassed 2 million COVID-19 cases.

The U.S. leads the world in COVID-19 cases, confirming 3,576,221 infections and 138,360 fatalities as of Friday morning, according to John Hopkins University.