This archive report was first published on 2 July 2021.
India has reached a grim milestone, becoming the third country to surpass 400,000 Covid-19 deaths, according to official data released on Friday, July 2, 2021.
With a total of 400,312 fatalities, India trails only the United States and Brazil in terms of Covid-19-related deaths. The country's total cases have reached nearly 30.5 million.
Many experts believe that India's true death toll may be significantly higher, potentially exceeding one million, due to a devastating surge in cases in April and May that overwhelmed hospitals.
The surge was attributed to the Delta variant and government complacency, which followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's declaration of victory over the virus in January.
Although daily case numbers have decreased significantly, many restrictions on activity have been lifted, raising fears of a new spike in coming months.
The government aims to vaccinate all 1.1 billion adults in the country this year, but due to shortages, administrative confusion, and hesitancy, only around five percent have received two doses so far.
On June 21, the government made vaccines free for all adults, leading to a surge in demand with over nine million shots administered in a single day.
However, daily inoculation rates have since slowed down, averaging just over four million per day over the past week, according to government figures.
