The Health Ministry reported 82,170 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, driving the overall confirmed tally to 60, 74,703. At least 1,039 deaths were also recorded in the same period, taking total fatalities up to 95,542, AP reported.

New infections in India are currently being reported faster than anywhere else in the world. The world’s second-most populous country is expected to become the pandemic’s worst-hit country in coming weeks, surpassing the US, where more than 7.1 million infections have been reported.

In the past week, nearly one in every three new infections reported in the world and one in every five reported coronavirus deaths came from India, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. While most of India’s deaths remain concentrated in its large cities, smaller urban centers across the country’s vast landscape are also reporting a surge in infections.

Yet even as infections mount, India has the highest number of recovered patients in the world. More than 5 million people have recovered from COVID-19 in India and the country’s recovery rate stands at 82%, according to the Health Ministry.

Health experts have warned about the potential for the virus to spread during the upcoming religious festival season, which is marked by huge gatherings of people in temples and shopping districts. Another potential risk is an upcoming election in eastern Bihar state, where nearly 72 million people will cast votes on three days beginning next month.

With its latest one million cases recorded in just 11 days, a world record, India now has 5.02 million infections. Only the United States has more, with 6.59 million.

India has for some time been recording the world’s biggest daily jumps in cases, and on Wednesday, the rise was just over 90,000 with a record 1,290 deaths.

While India took 167 days to reach one million cases, the next million came in just 21 days, faster than the US and Brazil, according to the Times of India.

Just 29 days later, India became only the third country after the US and Brazil to post four million infections. India passed Brazil earlier this month.

Even so, and with India now testing around a million people daily, many experts say that this is not enough and that the true number of infections may be far higher.

This has been borne out in several studies in recent weeks measuring antibodies against the virus among the cramped populations of megacities New Delhi and Mumbai.

The India Council for Medical Research, the country’s lead pandemic agency, said last week that its survey had suggested that already in May, 6.5 million people were infected.

The same goes for deaths — 82,066 as of Wednesday, less than half the US toll of 195,000 — with many deaths not properly recorded by authorities even in normal times.

India has one the world’s most poorly funded healthcare systems and the nation of 1.3 billion people is home to some of the most densely populated cities and towns.

The sharp rise in cases is despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government imposing in late March one of the world’s strictest lockdowns, leaving tens of millions of people in the informal labor market jobless almost overnight.

The lockdown saw complete travel bans, shutting down of businesses and factories, and the flight of millions of poor migrant workers from big cities to their villages that experts say caused the virus to spread from urban centres to small towns.

India’s GDP slumped nearly 24 percent in the first quarter, one of the steepest drops among major economies.

The lockdown has been steadily eased even as infections soar, with schools set to open for some classes on Monday — along with tourist hotspot the Taj Mahal.

“Initially there was a fair amount of rigor in the lockdown but subsequently there was some relaxation before it was completely lifted,” K. Srinath Reddy, head of health charity the Public Health Foundation of India, told AFP.

“It sent a wrong signal to the people that possibly we have got things reasonably under control and now the economy takes precedence. The virus is now infecting more people and penetrating deeper into smaller towns.”

India on Saturday also reported another 1,201 deaths, taking total fatalities to 77,472.

Infections are growing faster in India than anywhere else in the world and it is the second worst-hit country behind the United States. Experts say India’s limited and restrictive testing has masked the actual toll even as daily tests have been ramped up to more than 1 million.

The Health Ministry said that over three-fourth of reported COVID-19 cases had either recovered or been discharged. The country’s recovery rate was at 77.7 percent.

“The gap between the percentage of recovered cases and active cases is progressively growing wide,” the ministry said, AP reported.

Meanwhile, cases in the western state of Maharashtra, home to financial capital Mumbai, have passed 1 million as the virus continues to surge unabated through its rural and urban areas.

Maharashtra is the worst affected state with more than 28,000 COVID-19 fatalities. Nowhere has been the virus more deadly than in Maharashtra, where it has killed 2.8 percent of those with confirmed infections, well above the national mortality rate of nearly 1.7 percent.

The pandemic has been economically devastating for India. Its economy contracted nearly 24 percent in the second quarter, the worst among the world’s top economies.

On Sunday, India’s total of 78,761 new cases exceeded the previous record of 77,299 in the United States on July 16, a Reuters tally of official data showed.

India, the world’s second-most populous country, has been posting the highest single-day caseload in the world every day since Aug. 7, exceeding the tallies of both the United States and Brazil.

At 3.62 million total cases, India is fast catching up to these two countries in terms of cumulative caseload, but it has relatively lower death rate.

India’s deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, went up by 971 in the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 64,469, the health ministry said.