India reports 55K new coronavirus cases

Indian health officials reported nearly 55,000 new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday as the country continues to see rising rates of infections and approaches nearly 2 million confirmed cases.

Data gathered by Johns Hopkins University found that 54,735 cases were reported in India on Sunday, down from a record number of new cases, 61,200, reported the day before. The country now has confirmed 1.75 million cases of the virus since the beginning of the pandemic.

India’s rate of new infections has climbed steadily since May, and the country currently has the third-highest number of confirmed infections, behind the U.S. and Brazil, which have also struggled to stop the spread of the virus.

The country passed 1 million cases earlier this month, and an estimated 100 million Indians have been left out of work amid the pandemic, according to The New York Times.

One Indian health official told CNN earlier this month that prevention efforts were largely up to private citizens now and noted that about 56 percent of the country’s coronavirus cases are concentrated in only three states or territories.

“We are at the top but not at the peak,” they said. “We are certainly not at the bottom on the curve.”

“Now, it is largely dependent on the community. No agency can help much in the outbreak now,” the official added.