India has reported another record spike of 28,637 new COVID-19 infections in one day, as the virus continues to spread at a rapid pace.
The total tally of infections according to a Health Ministry bulletin is 849,553, with 22,674 deaths, 551 of them occurring since 8am on Saturday.
On a positive note, the rate of recoveries has increased to almost 63 per cent. More than 500,000 patients who contracted the disease have been cured, according to the Health Ministry.
In the United States, the country hardest hit by the coronavirus, 66,528 new cases were posted on Saturday, a record for a 24-hour period, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.
The country has now recorded a total of 3,242,073 infections, while the death toll stood at 134,729 with 760 additional deaths counted.
The US has now seen daily new cases top 60,000 in four of the past five days.
The viral infection has been spiralling in India over the past month as a prolonged lockdown was eased and people resumed work at factories, businesses and offices.
Health workers screen people for COVID-19 symptoms at Devnar slum in Mumbai, India. Source: AP
The last 100,000 infections came in just four days.
India had made the right choices in response to the pandemic, Minister for External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in response to criticism of the government's handling of the lockdown and its easing.
"In our case, recognising our capabilities and our limitations, we opted to rely very substantially on social distancing," Mr Jaishankar said.
"So we went for a very early lockdown, we went for a very early travel restriction and the result of that, three months down the road ... yes, the actual caseload today is large, it is not large in proportion to the population," Mr Jaishankar said.
India, with a population of 1.3 billion, now has about 12 per cent of the world's COVID-19 caseload - and this is expected to rise.
It ranks third after the United States and Brazil among countries with the largest number of infections.
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