Coronavirus cases in India crossed one million on Friday, according to official data that authorities are struggling to investigate the spread of a deadly pandemic in the world's second-most populous country.
With more than 600 Indians dying every day, lockdowns are being reset in 1.3 billion countries, and the spread has been under control since sanctions were eased in recent weeks.
Of the total cases released on Friday, the Ministry of Health recorded 1,003,382 data, an increase of about 35,000, from 687 to 25,602 deaths - both new daily records.
India is the third-largest country after the United States and Brazil with one million cases, followed by India, the United States, and Brazil with one million cases.
A meeting of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Society on Thursday said that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh together are becoming the next hub of the virus.
"Despite the global focus on the ongoing crisis in the United States and South America, the simultaneous human tragedy is rapidly emerging," the agency said.
"COVID-19 is spreading at an alarming rate in South Asia, which is a quarter of humanity."
- Rural Expansion -
India's major hotspots are Mumbai and New Delhi's megacities, but recently small towns and rural areas - inhabited by 70 per cent Indians - have begun to raise the alarm.
Goa, which imposed a three-day bandh and night curfew till August 10, became the latest state to go under the lockout on Thursday evening.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said "a lot of people are leaving to meet people at parties" and there is a low level of "awareness and sensitivity".
Coastal tourism follows Bihar, one of the poorest states in India and home to 125 million people, in a redistribution after making IT hub Bangalore this week.
Other areas have also withdrawn parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala - formerly hailed as success stories - as well as Assam.
But the situation on the ground in Bihar underscores the challenges facing the epidemic.
Roads in the state capital Patna are still closed to traffic since the lockout began and people are ignoring social distance advice and not wearing masks.
Local businessman Ranjit Singh complained that "the lockout is not being fully implemented".
- 'We do not know' -
Indian hospitals are shining again, with the per capita expenditure on health care being the lowest in the world.
Frontline staff, especially in stay-in-state hospitals, often work long shifts with protective equipment.
Shokhat Nazir Wani, a hospital doctor in the state of Uttar Pradesh, said, "Kovid patients often faint. They refuse to eat, pull out the tubes and become violent with us."
Many experts say that India is not testing or recording enough people, which means that the actual caseloid is likely to be too high.
Gautam Menon, a professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University in India, told AFP that Tally was "almost underestimated".
"We think it's underestimated by factors like 20 to 30 ... and that number could be even bigger. We do not have an address at the moment."
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