This archive report was first published on 23 August 2020.
India's COVID-19 pandemic has taken a devastating turn, with the country's confirmed cases crossing the three million mark on Sunday, August 23, 2020. According to the health ministry, 69,239 new cases were detected, taking the total number of infections to over three million.
Despite the government's efforts to contain the spread of the virus, the real scale of the infection is believed to be much higher. An antibody study in New Delhi, the capital city, suggested that more than a quarter of the population had contracted the infection.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government imposed a strict lockdown in late March, but it has been mostly eased in recent weeks. However, the epidemic has left Asia's third-largest economy reeling, with tens of millions of people losing their jobs and livelihoods.
Individual states and cities have imposed localized lockdowns, including Haryana and Punjab, where cases have spiked in recent weeks. The main hotspots have been the megacities of New Delhi and Mumbai, home to some of the world's biggest slums.
According to Dr. K Srinath Reddy, of the Public Health Foundation of India, 'At the moment we are seeing a fairly sharp rise in cases overall for India.'
