India surpassed 8 million coronavirus cases Thursday after reporting 49,871 new infections in the past 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The country's total caseload now stands at 8,040,203, which includes more than 7.3 million recoveries and 120,527 deaths. Globally, India is behind only the United States in the number of infections.
Daily case numbers in India have been dropping to the lowest levels in three months, with a slower than expected rise in recent weeks.
It took 18 days for India to go from 7 million recorded cases to the 8 million mark, compared to the 13 days it took to reach 6 million and 11 days to hit 7 million cases, according to a CNN tally of figures from India’s health ministry.
More than 106.5 million coronavirus tests have been conducted as of Wednesday, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research.
Capital surge: New Delhi, however, is going against the national downward trend, as authorities reported 5,673 new Covid-19 cases there on Wednesday – the highest single-day rise to date that took the capital's total caseload to 370,014, according to the Delhi government’s health department.
The total for New Delhi includes more than 334,000 recovered patients and 6,396 deaths.
Patients with mild and moderate symptoms in India are considered no longer active after 10 days of symptom onset if they meet certain conditions. A test to confirm that they no longer have the virus is not required.