India's coronavirus tally exceeds 1m on record infection surge

South Asian nation trails only US and Brazil while claiming no community spread

People mourn after seeing the body of a relative, who died due to COVID-19), outside a mortuary in New Delhi, India on July 9. © Reuters

KIRAN SHARMA, Nikkei staff writer

July 17, 2020 15:27 JST

Updated on July 17, 2020 16:14 JST

NEW DELHI -- India's number of coronavirus infections crossed the one million mark on Friday, nearly six months after the country confirmed its first case on Jan. 30. It has become only the third nation after the U.S. and Brazil to surpass the figure.

Officials in the South Asian country of over 1.3 billion people still insist there is no community transmission of COVID-19, even amid reports that the virus has started spreading to rural areas from megacities such as New Delhi and Mumbai.