India's coronavirus death toll approaches 100,000

India’s coronavirus fatalities are closing on 100,000 with another 1,095 deaths reported in the past 24 hours.

The update by the Health Ministry on Friday raised India’s death toll to 99,773.

But the reported deaths are low for a country with nearly 1.4 billion people and more than 6.3 million confirmed cases. Experts say it may not be counting many fatalities, reports AP.

The ministry also reported 81,484 new cases.

Total cases jumped from 1 million in mid-July to more than 6 million in less than 2 1/2 months.

New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru are the main urban centres of the infections, accounting for one in every seven confirmed cases and one in every five deaths in the country.

Indian economy is reeling from a virus lockdown which saw the economy contract an unprecedented 24 per cent in the April-June quarter.

In August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced 1.46 trillion US dollars in infrastructure projects to boost the sagging economy and allocated 2 billion dollars to upgrade the country’s overwhelmed health system.

That followed a 22 billion dollars economic stimulus package announced in March, including delivering rations of grain and lentils for 800 million people, some 60 per cent of the world’s second-most populous country.

Other subsidies included a meagre cash grant of 6,000 rupees (80 US dollars) a year each for 86 million poor farmers and free cooking gas cylinders for 83 million poor women until the end of September.